) 



WANDERINGS 

IN 

NORTH AFRICA. 



NOTICE. 



The following pages have been passed through the 
press during the absence of their Author in the East. 
This circumstance will explain any few errors in the 
orthography of names of places or persons which may 
be met with in them. 



WANDERINGS 

IN 

NORTH AFRICA. 



Br 



JAMES u HAMILTON,-w««3W 




LONDON: 
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 
1856. 



LO.VDO.V I PRINTED BY YTOODFALL AND KINDER, 
ANGEL COURT, SKINNER STREET. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction ix 

CHAPTER I. 



Malta to Benghazi. — Benghazi. — Aspect of the Town. — Popu- 
lation. — Diseases. — Government. — Antiquities. — Dress of the 
Inhabitants. — Trade. — Artisans. — Jews 1 



CHAPTER II. 

Preparations for Departure from Benghazi. — Leave Benghazi. 
— Arab Horses. — Ruins of Kasa Tawileh.— Labiar. — What 
an Arab is. — Mode of Travelling. — Retinue. — Silphium. — 
Tombs. — Cyrene 18 



CHAPTER III. 

Grennah. — Arab Conversation. — Fountain of Cyre. — Ruins of 
Cyrene. — Interrupted by Bedawin. — Ruins of a Theatre. — 
Bas-reliefs. — Inscriptions. — Terraces. — Temple of iEscula- 
pius. — Aqueduct. — Cyrene's History unknown. — Its Ruinous 

state 33 



CHAPTER IV. 

Interview with the Bey. — Arab Feast. — The Bey's Hospitality 55 



VI 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER V. 

PAGE 

Meditations at Sunrise. — Yiolation of the Tombs. — Descrip- 
tion of the Tombs. — Allegorical Figures. — Splendid Tomb. 
—Curious Tombs. — Lively Yale— TJnartistic Statues . . 62 



CHAPTER VI. 

Charming Scenery. — Arab Summer Dwellings. — Ruins of Apol- 
lonia. — Ancient Granaries. — Chapels over Saints' Tombs. — 
Abd-el-Kader's Warriors. — Temple of Bacchus 



CHAPTER VII. 

Grennah, a Charming Retreat — Pleasant Camping-ground. — 
Rencontre with an Arab Sain t— The Son of a Rich Prince. — 
Striking Cures 92 



CHAPTER VIII. 

An Arab " Vendetta."— Coquetry at the Wells. — A Bridal Pro- 
cession. — The Okbah Pass 103 



CHAPTER IX. 

Improvidence of the Arabs. — Derna, its lively appearance. — 
Ruined Battery. — Curious Bargain 113 



CHAPTER X. 

Convent Agriculture. — A Roman Stronghold. — Splendid Olive 
Groves. — Water runs short. — The Mirage. — Dine with the 
Governor. — The Site of Ancient Barca.— Quit the Plain of 
Merdj . . . . . 122 



CHAPTER XL 

Tomb of a Ptolemy.— Unequal Taxation.— What a Wife costs. 
—Ruins of Tolmeta.— Wall around Tancra.— Good State of 
the Ruins.— The Rains.— Arab Tents.— Return to Benghazi 138 



CONTENTS. 



vii 



CHAPTER XII. 

PAGE 

What a Consul should be. — Turkish Oppression. — Official Cor- 
ruption. — Universal Venality. — The Moslem hates the Chris- 
tian 154 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Benghazi to Angila. — Corn Stores. — Cachettes. — Ruins near El- 
Farsy. — Remarkable Fortress. — Horrors of the Slave Trade. 
— England should forbid it. — Herds of Gazelles. — Bruce. — 
Re sam.— Oasis of Angila 165 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Angila and Jalo. — Group of Oases. — The Majabra Arabs. — The 
Sultan of Waday. — Turkish Drunkards. — Inconveniences of 
Travel 187 

CHAPTER XY. 



The rival Sheikhs. — Weary Days at Angila. — Chain of Oases. 
— Marriage Feasts. — Marriage Gifts 204 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Vexatious Delay. — Lose the Track. — Short commons in the 
Desert. — Genuine Arab Hospitality. — En route for Siwah. — 
Sand Valleys. — Scene of Desolation. — Signs of Volcanic 
Action. — Approach Siwah. — Sepulchral Caves. — Arrive at 
Siwah . 21£ 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Encampment at Siwah. — Conference with the Sheikhs. — Refuse 
to quit Siwah. — Attack on the Tents. — Detained at Siwah. 
— Incidents while imprisoned. — Defensive Preparations. — 
A South Wind blows Good Luck. — Manners, &c, of the Peo- 
ple. — Their Appearance and Dress. — An Industrious Race . 237 



viii 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

ZiC PAGE 

Arab Mesmerism. — Divination. — Sheikh Senus i. — Morocco 
Miracles — A Treasure-seeker's Tales. — Yusnf's Ingenuity. — 
Further exemplified. — My Captivity ended. — The Tables 
turned . 261 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Antiquities of Agharmy. — Ruins of a Temple.' — Ancient 

Palace. — Acropolis of the Oasis Tombs of the Ammo- 

nians. — Interior of Sivah. — Ruins of Beled er-Roum — 
Many Ruins around Sivah. — Preparations for Departure . 281 



CHAPTER XX. 

Leave Siwah. — Rude Sepulchres. — A Camel's Last Stage. — 
Sand Storm. — Find an Arab Cousin. — Com hard to get at. 
— Adieu to the Desert. — The Desert. — The Oasis. — Arrive at 
Cairo 301 



INTRODUCTION. 



A few words of preface concerning a country so little 
known as that in which these pages were written may, 
perhaps, be useful to the reader. For the sake of 
those who may he interested in its past history or 
present condition, I shall indicate the sources which 
will supply further information. 

Cyrenaica, or, as it was called under the Ptolemys, 
Pentapolis, is situated on the northern coast of Africa, 
between Carthage and Egypt. In its commercial im- 
portance it once almost rivalled the former, and in the 
fertility of its soil, the latter. Its early political vicis- 
situdes are little known in detail, nearly all the works 
which were specially dedicated to its history having 
disappeared in the wreck of ages, among which the 
most to be regretted is the Book on the Republic of 
Cyrene, which Aristotle inserted in his Politics. 

A 3 



X 



INTRODUCTION. 



The Cyrenaica presents a succession of hills and 
table-lands, bounded on the east by the barren plains of 
Marmarica ; to the south it is separated from the Great 
Desert of Libya by the hills of Hercules and the 
Yelpa Mountains ; on the north and west it is washed 
by the Mediterranean. Its insular position amidst 
water and sands afforded considerable security as well 
as great facilities for commerce. In contrast with the 
countries on either hand, it was well watered with 
frequent rains and perennial springs, so that it seemed 
an earthly Paradise, well fitted to be the site of the 
Garden of the Hesperides, or the abode of the Lotos - 
eaters. 

Cyrene, the capital of the country, was founded by 
a colony of Therasans, who quitted their native island 
in the iEgean Sea in the latter half of the seventh 
century B.C., under the conduct of Battus the Dorian. 
He was said to derive his origin from the Minyse, the 
descendants of the Argonauts, and was pointed out by 
the Pythian Oracle to be the founder, with his coun- 
trymen, of a colony in Libya. The inhabitants of 
Thera, says the story, did not even know where Libya 
was situated, and, returning home, neglected to comply 
with the orders of the god. At length, admonished by 
a severe calamity — the total cessation of rain for seven 
years, and the consequent destruction of all the trees 
in the island excepting one — they sent one of their 



INTRODUCTION. 



si 



number into Crete, whose inhabitants were of kin to 
them, to inquire if any one there had ever heard of 
Libya. One Corobius undertook to be their guide. 
With him they sailed to the island of Platasa, in the 
Gulf of Bomba and (after taking possession of it) 
returned home with the news. Thereupon, Battus, 
" alike distinguished by nobility of birth and genius," 
was despatched, with two fifty-oar galleys, as king, to 
the new colony. 

The situation thus chosen was an unfavourable one, 
for the island was small and barren. After suffering 
great privations, its inhabitants left it for the main- 
land, and at length, under conduct of the Galigammse, 
one of the Libyan tribes, (who were tired of the new 
comers, and in return had proved themselves trouble- 
some neighbours,) they settled around the fountain of 
Cyre, which issues from a cave in the side of a hill 
about twelve miles from the sea-shore ; and returned 
thanks to the god under whose auspices they had 
found at length a new home in the midst of a fertile 
country, " under an open heaven." 

Cyre was a daughter of the king of the Lapithae, 
and displayed her courage in combats with the wild 
beasts, which attacked her father's herds. One day 
being seen by Apollo, when, in the fastnesses of Pelion, 
she wrestled with a lion, he became enamoured of her. 
Counselled by Chiron, he carried her off in a golden 



xii 



INTRODUCTION. 



chariot into Libya. They were there kindly received by 
Venus, their nuptials were celebrated, and the god 
gave her the country as a kingdom. Of the other 
fables which connect the origin of Cyrene with the 
gods of Greece ; of the Grecian Hercules, who wrestled 
and overthrew Antseus, the son of the Earth (the native 
Libyans) ; of the Garden of the Hesperides, which 
bloomed with golden apples, inaccessible on the western 
shore, — I need say nothing. The hidden meaning of 
the myths, with which a patriotic religion was not long 
in enrolling the obscure origin of a Grecian colony, 
perpetuates the story of its early struggles, throwing a 
poetic gauze over facts too humbling for its full-grown 
pride. 

The new city was built on the table-land above the 
hill, from whose side the fountain issues. The lofty 
walls which inclosed it, and the temples and palaces 
which adorned it, arose a landmark for the mariner. 
Seven descendants of its founder reigned in it succes- 
sively until about 450 B.C., probably invested with a 
sort of patriarchal authority, such as the early kings of 
Athens exercised. This was followed by a hundred 
and thirty years of liberty or licence, succeeded by a 
strict monarchical government under the Egyptian 
Ptolemys, the last of whose kings bequeathed his 
country to the Eoman Senate. 

The history, as it has come down to us, begins with 



INTRODUCTION. 



xiii 



a period of profound obscurity, which clouds the reigns 
of Battus and his son Arcesilaus. To the latter suc- 
ceeded Battus II., Eudaimon, Felix the Happy. His 
reign was the golden age of Oyrensean tradition. Fresh 
settlers from the mother country brought increased 
prosperity to the colony. Their territory became too 
narrow for its inhabitants, who, gradually spreading 
over the surrounding country, drove out the Libyan 
nomads ; and thus the foundations of a power were 
securely laid, which soon gave (with the possession of 
a sea-port, Apollonia) a new impulse to enterprise. 
Teuchira and Hesperides were afterwards founded to 
the westward, and Barce — long the most flourishing 
of the daughter- cities, and at one time the rival of 
the metropolis — whose name is still perpetuated in the 
Turkish province of Barka. The native nomads did 
not, however, relinquish their pasture grounds without 
a struggle; they implored the assistance of the Egyp- 
tian king Apries, and the surname of Happy was, 
perhaps, earned at the fountain of Theste (Kubbeh?), 
where Battus defeated his troops. The Libyans were 
now subdued ; the victors intermarried with the daugh- 
ters of the soil ; Greek genius was not long in adopt- 
ing some, at least, of the mythology of their subjects; 
and thus a permanent dominion, supported by force, 
consanguinity, and religion, was established by the 
conqueror. 



xiv 



INTRODUCTION. 



But it was not long before the monarchy was weak- 
ened hy the defection of the brothers of Arcesilaus II., 
son of Battus Felix, who, retiring from their brother's 
capital, founded Barce, and soon formed around it an 
independent territory, peopled, like the new city itself, 
for the most part by Libyans. Civil discord now 
divided the colony, and bloody feuds stained the royal 
house. The constitution, thus undermined by popular 
tumults and by regal encroachments, or weakness, 
threatened to involve in its rain the material pros- 
perity of the colony. In this conjuncture, the Cyre- 
naeans again applied to the Pythian Oracle for advice, 
and Demonax, the Mantinean, was deputed by the 
god to restore order; he gained the good-will of all 
parties, and established new institutions, which greatly 
curtailed the royal power, but which were maintained 
during the reign of the third Battus. His son and 
successor, Arcesilaus III., not content to follow in his 
father's steps, and impatient of restraint, was driven 
into exile by the insurrection which his arbitrary con- 
duct had aroused; but soon returning, with Samian 
reinforcements, he repossessed himself of a power 
which he now used with uncurbed barbarity. 

Such was the situation of affairs, when the Persian 
conquest of Egypt threatened to destroy the political 
independence of Cyrene. The king, not daring to 
trust his disaffected subjects (after promising tribute 



INTRODUCTION. 



xv 



to his new neighbour), retired to Barce, where he con- 
tinued the cruelties which had rendered him odious in 
his own dominions. He and his father-in-law, the king 
of Barce, were soon afterwards murdered. His mother 
fled to Egypt, and claimed the protection of the Per- 
sian Suzerain, with whose troops returning she laid 
siege to Barce, and savagely revenged the assassina- 
tion of her son. Cyrene, by timely concessions, 
escaped uninjured from the Persian raid. Another 
Battus and a fourth Arcesilaus reigned in it with 
mingled feebleness and severity; in their hands the 
royal power lost all consideration, and on the death of 
the last, royalty was abolished. A free republic, 
aristocratic rather than democratic, now took its place, 
accompanied by all the party contests and all the civil 
seditions of which the history of the mother- coun try- 
shows so many examples. To this unsettled condition 
of its government must be ascribed the fact, that, 
notwithstanding its situation — equally favourable to 
commerce as that of Carthage — and its infinitely 
more fertile soil, Cyrene never, either in the arts of 
war or in the arts of peace, rivalled the city of Dido. 
A love of turbulence and feuds seems to have formed 
an essential feature of the Greek character; all the 
efforts which, from time to time, were made by 
her wiser citizens to introduce better order into the 
republic, were vain. At last they applied to the divine 



xvi 



INTRODUCTION. 



Plato, requesting him to furnish them with a code of 
laws ; and posterity regrets that he was too prudent to 
compromise his reputation, by legislating for so turbu- 
lent a community. 

Alexander's apparition in Egypt was followed by a 
treaty which seemed to guarantee the independence of 
Cyrene ; but after his death intestine troubles and the 
solicitations of exiles (who, for whatever cause expelled 
their country, are ever its worst enemies) attracted 
armed bands into their fertile provinces. These ma- 
rauders seized the ports, twice besieged the capital, 
and filled the country with rapine and ruin, which 
neither the aid of Carthage nor of the Libyan nomads 
could stay. At last, one stronger than either party, 
Ptolemy, who had succeeded to Alexander in Egypt, 
sent a fleet and troops and re-established tranquillity, 
B.C. 322 — a service which he turned to his own profit, 
so that Cyrene became thereafter for many years a 
province of Egypt, under the name of Pentapolis. 

Unaccustomed to a regular government, the turbu- 
lent Cyrenaeans bore the yoke impatiently. Revolt 
followed revolt, and the Egyptian viceroy himself 
rebelled against his master. But these vain attempts 
at forming an independent government only sunk the 
Pentapolis in deeper misery. It was about the time 
that the first Jewish colonies were introduced, in con- 
formity with the general policy of Ptolemy; and they 



INTRODUCTION. 



xvii 



soon became so numerous here, that, at length, no 
other country besides Palestine, contained so many 
individuals of their nation. Enjoying equal rights 
with the Greeks and the special favour of the king, 
they formed in the end a fourth order in the State, and 
were governed by municipal magistrates of their own. 
That they had a separate synagogue at Jerusalem, we 
learn from the Acts of the Apostles, vi. 9 ; and their 
frequent mention in the New Testament proves how 
important a part of the Jewish nation they constituted. 
They distinguished themselves under Trajan by a 
rebellion, in which they exhibited great ferocity ; this 
rebellion was only suppressed after immense slaughter 
had taken place on both sides. 

The reign of the third Ptolemy was a remarkable 
era for Cyrene. The original laws delivered by De- 
monax the Arcadian had been retained (with what 
corruption or modifications we know not) up to this 
time ; but now, with the king's consent, the people 
called in two distinguished natives of Megalopolis in 
the same province, Ecdemus and Demophanes — disci- 
ples of the philosopher Arcesilaus — to revise them. 
These two, as the historian informs us, " restored the 
public peace and the safety of the citizens." The 
history of the following years is generally obscure ; 
but enough remains to show, that this tranquillity was 
not of long duration, and tumults and rebellions con- 



xyiii 



INTRODUCTION. 



tinued to weaken the country till Ptolemy Apion, on 
his deaths B.C. 96, bequeathed it to the Roman Senate. 
About twenty years later, after a vain attempt had 
been made to leave it in the enjoyment of self-govern- 
ment, it was merged into a Roman province in con- 
junction with Crete. It was, perhaps, in his adminis- 
tration of this quaestorship, that Vespasian first came 
in contact with the Jews. In the division of the 
empire, it fell to the share of Constantinople, and was 
exempt from none of the miseries which afflicted the 
distant provinces of the empire in its decay. The 
subsequent desolation of the country is described in 
the inflated eloquence of his time by the rhetorician 
Synesius, the Platonist bishop of Ptolemais, who, in 
espousing his church, refused to part with his wife. 
The nomad tribes gradually regained the ascendancy, 
driving out the more civilised inhabitants; and from 
the date of the Arab occupation, which immediately 
followed the conquest of Egypt, we hear no more of 
the Cyrenaica, excepting what is given of it in the 
short notice, which Abulfida has inserted in "his Geo- 
graphy, under the head of Barka. It now forms the 
eastern part of the Turkish pachalik of Tripoli, di- 
vided into two prefectures, Benghazi and Derna, 
which are the only inhabited towns remaining in its 
whole extent. 

The sources of wealth which the Cyrenaica presented 



INTRODUCTION, xix 

were many and valuable. Its trade with the interior 
of Africa, by way of Angila, furnished for exportation 
ivory, gold, precious stones, ostrich feathers, and slaves 
—the same products which the triennial caravan from 
Waday, at the present day, brings to Benghazi. Judg- 
ing, however, from the accounts of the ancients, from 
the remains of the splendid caravanserais which we 
meet with on this route, the trade must have been 
conducted on a far greater scale than at the present 
time. Pindar refers to the commercial navy of Cyrene, 
by means of which an active commerce was carried on 
with the main land, the islands of Greece, and the 
coasts of Asia Minor. Of the indigenous produce of 
this country, the first in rank, both for value and 
utility, was derived from the silphium, which yielded a 
gummy juice, the laserpitium, esteemed by the ancients 
as a remedy for almost every disease. So universal 
was its fame that it gave a common epithet to the 
country; and the "Silphium of Battus" is used by 
Aristophanes as a synonym for exceeding wealth. It 
was a government monopoly, and in Rome was sold 
for an equal weight of silver. It is mentioned, if I 
mistake not, among the treasures which Cassar laid 
hold of at the commencement of the civil wars. Theo- 
phrastus and Pliny describe the method of its cultiva- 
tion, though, from the expressions used by other 



XX 



INTRODUCTION. 



authors, it seems to have grown wild in the desert 
places ; but, however obtained, it undoubtedly yielded 
a large revenue to the country. 

The olive flourished with remarkable rruitfulness in 
its soil; and the immense tracts which are at the 
present day still covered with it, proves how extensive 
its cultivation must once have been, and how conge- 
nial to it is the soil in which, after ages of neglect, it 
still flourishes. Its crops of grain were as abundant 
as those of Mauritius and Sicily, and furnished large 
exports. During four months of my stay in the coun- 
try I ate ripe grapes, and in one place I left the half- 
formed fruit hanging in rich clusters from the vines ; 
so true is the ancient description which, speaking of 
the various climates of the Cyrenaica, says, that the 
harvest lasted nine months, beginning in the low 
grounds, then ascending to the table-lands, and ending 
in the hills. The flowers of the Cyrenaica were also 
celebrated, and the ground is still enamelled with a 
rich flora ; the crocus officinalis furnished a consi- 
derable article of export, and its roses yielded the 
finest attar distilled for its Egyptian Queen. The 
honey almost vied with that of Hymettus, and in some 
places it is still gathered by the Arabs, who send it 
in presents to their distant friends. The herds and 
flocks which Pindar celebrates are still the wealth of 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxi 



its nomad inhabitants. The breed of horses was 
remarkable for fleetness and endurance ; and the war- 
chariots in which they were harnessed were as cele- 
brated as the skill of the drivers who conducted 
them. 

But the ancients do not confine their praises to the 
natural productions of the soil. Cyrene was fruitful, 
also, in men distinguished in the arts and sciences. 
Architecture and the engraving of precious stones 
were both carried to great perfection by the Oyrenasans. 
Of their skill in painting and sculpture few evidences 
have reached us. It was in the liberal arts that they 
especially shone ; and a long list might be produced 
of men of letters and science who adorned their birth- 
place or spread its fame in other lands. The poems 
of Callimachus, a Cyrensean of noble birth, prove 
that the noblest exercise of genius was not neglected. 
But the brightest lustre is shed upon the African 
Doria by its mathematicians, physicians, and philoso- 
phers. Eratosthenes, the poet, philosopher, and geo- 
meter, may also be called the Father of Geography. 
But all are eclipsed by the fame of Aristippus, his 
daughter Arete, and her son Aristippus (the mother- 
taught), who founded, and to the third generation 
sustained, the glory of the Cyrensean School of Phi- 
losophy — a rare, perhaps a singular instance of such 
mental gifts descending, as it were, by inheritance. 



xxii 



INTRODUCTION. 



We know the doctrines of this school only "by the 
writings of its adversaries ; we are not, therefore, qua- 
lified to pronounce judgment upon them. In the 
original teaching it seems rather to have been a con- 
tradiction to the stoic and cynical doctrines, establish- 
ing enjoyment as the chief end of man, allied to moral 
freedom — a philosophical enjoyment, which consists 
in using all the good things which Providence has 
showered upon us. This was a doctrine not discor- 
dant with the habits and genius of the people with 
whom it originated. If later disciples of this school 
contended that the true philosophy of life consists in 
the pursuits of voluptuousness, or, exaggerating even 
this doctrine, taught that virtue for itself is despicable, 
that no Deity exists, and that, since pain cannot be 
entirely avoided, life itself is detestable — we may re- 
gard such aberrations as the declamatory sophistries 
of ill-regulated genius, not as the real opinions of 
a school whose first teacher sat at the feet of So- 
crates. 

I shall conclude by mentioning the authors who in 
modern times have called attention to this country. 
Our guide in all that relates to its ancient condition 
is the learned Dane Thrige, who, in his work "Res 
Oyrenensium," has exhausted all the information that 
the most ingenious acuteness could extract from the 
writers of antiquity. Of modern observers, the first in 



INTRODUCTION. 



xxiii 



point of time is Leo Africanus, who,, with naive sim- 
plicity, describes the Desert of Barka as a hideous 
waste, peopled only by barbarians sunk in the most 
abject poverty. Early in the eighteenth century, Le- 
maire, quoted by Paul Lucas, was sent to explore the 
ruins which it was reported to contain, by Louis XIV. 
After him, Shaw and Bruce visited some parts of the 
province ; but the first work which treated in detail 
of its antiquities was that of the French artist Pacho, 
whose untimely end prevented his reaping the laurels 
which his enterprising genius had planted. He may 
be regarded as the re-discoverer of the remains of 
Greek civilisation in this part of Africa. The work 
which he produced under incredible difficulties is re- 
markable among modern books of travel as a monu- 
ment of industry and daring ; and I here gratefully 
acknowledge the amount of enjoyment for which I 
was indebted to it during my tour. To his name it is 
only just to add that of Beechey, whose accounts and 
scientific labours have deprived future authors of the 
right to intrude upon their readers the results of 
geographical observations. The plans and map which 
accompany his work are of great value. Two Italian 
travellers, anterior in point of time to the last-men- 
tioned, must not be forgotten, viz. Delia Cella, a 
Genoese physician, who in the suite of the Bey of Ben- 
ghazi, visited this country in 1819, and published an 



xxiv 



INTRODUCTION. 



account of his travels, which, though not without 
merit, leave much to be desired in accuracy; and a 
merchant Crevelli, whose meagre journal was published 
by the French Society of Geography. The last of the 
few travellers who have penetrated into these almost 
unknown regions is Dr. Barth, on whose hazardous 
attempt to reach the central kingdoms of Africa the 
eyes of Europe are now turned with equal hope and 
admiration. May the desert which has devoured so 
many valuable lives, spare his to the advancement of 
science and civilisation ! 

J. H. 

Caieo. 

September 1, 1853. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



General View of Rock Tombs in the Necropolis of 

Cyrene Frontispiece. 

Entrance to Fountain of Apollo . . To face page 37 

Rock Tombs in the Necropolis at Cyrene ... 62 

Rock Tombs on the Western Side of the Necropolis at 

Cybene 65 

Wall Paintings in a Rock Tomb in the Necropolis at 

Cyrene, No. 1 .68 

Wall Paintings in a Rock Tomb in the Necropolis at 

Cyrene, No. 2 69 

Tombs over Excavated Caves 75 

Remains of Ionic Building at Ptolemais . . . .144 



I 



WANDERINGS 

IN 

NORTH AFRICA. 



CHAPTER I. 

Malta to Benghazi. — Benghazi. — Aspect of the Town. — Population. 
— Diseases. — Government. — Antiquities. — Dress of the Inhabit- 
ants. — Trade. — Artisans. — Jews. 

The journey which the following pages describe had 
been for many years the object of my wishes, although 
it was only in 1852 that I was able to put my design 
in execution. The experience of several tours in 
Syria had taught me the necessity of knowing the 
language of the country, for the sake of personal 
safety, as well as for gaining information ; I therefore 
lost no opportunity of making myself acquainted with 
the colloquial, which differs so much from the classical, 
Arabic. The study of this language is, indeed, very 
difficult, but it has been to me a most charming 

B 



2 WANDERINGS IX NORTH AFRICA. Chap. I. 

employment, and I hare never regretted the many long 
hours which I have devoted to the acquisition of it. 
Before leaving Europe I had carefully studied all that 
ancient or modem authors have written upon the old 
Pentapolis ; and I came to this country provided with 
the necessary instruments for measuring heights and 
ascertaining the positions of the several points I 
should visit. I do not, however, pretend to write a 
book full of antiquarian lore or geographical details — 
on this head, my predecessors have left little to he 
gleaned. Thrige, in his £ * Res Cyrenensium," offers an 
ample repertory for those who are desirous of knowing 
every fact that classical antiquity has handed down to 
us, concerning the ancient wealth and arts of the 
Cyreneans ; and Beechey has given, with the utmost 
accuracy, the position of the principal points of in- 
terest. Pacho gives us many interesting details in his 
work, though, perhaps, he has too highly coloured his 
descriptions ; his drawings of the remaining ruins are 
full of errors. Pacho has the merit of having alone 
traversed this country at a time when it required no 
little enterprise to risk a passage through it. I 
disclaim all merit on the score of enterprise or 
remarkable discoveries; and if the narrative of my 
visit to this lovely region should induce others of my 
countrymen to vary their Egyptian and Syrian tours 
by a visit to the Pentapolis, the object of my ambition 



Chap. L MALTA TO BENGHAZI. 3 

will be gained. I shall have conferred upon them the 
benefit of calling- their attention to this forgotten land, 
and on the inhabitants the still greater advantage of 
a more frequent contact with European civilisation. 
There is no country, excepting Morocco, where the 
Moslem has so little felt the influence of modem 
civilisation, or where his fanaticism is more offensive. 
Here, we are still in the sixteenth century ; the pages of 
Shaw and other old travellers are recalled in our daily 
dealings with the Arabs, whose most offensive charac- 
teristics are only mitigated by the vicinity of Malta, 
and through a certain traditionary fear of British 
power. 

Without further preamble, I shall state that my 
point of departure was Malta, from whence I sailed for 
Benghazi, now the principal town in the district, and 
the seat of Government. I took my passage on board 
a brigantine of 150 tons, the Pace, the largest vessel 
which trades between Malta and Benghazi. The depth 
of water in the small part of the ancient harbour, which 
is not yet sanded up, admits no vessel which draws 
more than ten feet of water ; after September the 
passage is so insecure, that all direct intercourse 
ceases, and letters then can only be conveyed from 
Malta by Tripoli, whence there is a weekly courier 
who comes in thirteen days. I stowed myself on the 
deck of the brigantine, in a box ten feet by five, and 

B 2 



4 WANDERINGS IN FORTH AFRICA. Chap. I. 

about three and a half high, which, when washed and 
carpeted, formed no inconvenient cabin, and saved me 
in great part from the attacks of those creeping and 
jumping fellow-passengers from which no Mediterra- 
nean merchant- vessel is free. Being well supplied with 
new books, I managed to kill time pleasantly enough 
during the six days that the passage lasted. In the 
evening, after sunset, I used to take a seat upon the 
deck, to chat with the captain and the scrivano, — a 
sort of mate, — and thus learnt from them all they 
could tell me of the trade between Europe and the 
regency of Tripoli, and of the wonders of the unknown 
land I was going to visit. In their gossip I sometimes 
caught a faint echo of old Herodotus. I much enjoyed 
one of their stories, which they told with the greatest 
gravity, assuring me that they had heard it from the 
most respectable natives. In the interior of Africa, 
beyond the black hills, is a race of people whose men 
are dogs, their women being like those of other nations. 
The husbands spend their days in hunting, and at night 
bring home to their wives the game they have killed ; 
these cook and eat the meat, and give the bones to 
their dog-husbands. They were both intelligent men, 
able to give a satisfactory account of their trade ; but 
they made no difficulty in believing this story, and 
other tales not less marvellous. The profits of the 
trading vessels are principally made on the return 



Chap. I. ASPECT OF THE TOWN. 5 

voyage, when the cargo consists of cattle for the con- 
sumption of the island, and bales of coarse wool, 
which is principally destined for Leghorn. Paper and 
glass from this place, plain and printed cottons from 
England and Switzerland, with planks from Trieste, 
form nearly all the imports to Benghazi. The approach 
to the town is not promising; the long, flat line of 
sand, broken here and there by groups of palm-trees, 
becomes visible only at a very short distance from the 
shore. On nearing it, two insignificant white-washed 
marabuts, and the castle- — a square building, flanked 
with round towers, standing on the sea-shore, and 
conspicuous only from its whiteness — are the first 
objects which strike the eye. The town itself is not 
seen until the traveller is close to it ; it looks like 
a large collection of mud huts, unrelieved by a single 
minaret, or even by the dove-cots, which render many 
of the mud villages on the Nile so picturesque. 
Closer inspection confirms this first impression of the 
town. * The houses are indeed built of stone, badly 
cemented with crumbling lime ; but in the whole town 
not more than a dozen have the convenience of a room 
raised above the ground-floor (ghorfa). They are 
built round an oblong court, with no attempt at archi- 
tectural ornament, the walls not exceeding fourteen 
feet in height, and almost in no case are the rooms 
more than ten feet in breadth, though frequently thirty 



6 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. I. 

or forty feet long. They are lighted from the door ; and, 
in the hetter houses, one, or perhaps two, rooms have 
the additional convenience of small windows, which are 
closed hy wooden shutters. The flooring is sometimes 
of flag-stones, generally of mud; and the flat roofs, 
formed with the undressed trunks of the juniper trees, 
laid side by side across the walls, covered with mats 
and plaster, are not impervious to the winter rains. 
This is no unfavourable account of the houses of 
Benghazi; and when I add, that the streets, filled 
with loose sea-sand, are kept tolerably clean — remark- 
ably so for an Oriental town — I have doue ample jus- 
tice to its merits. The water for drinking is brought 
from wells at a distance, in barrels or skins ; and 
every house has in its court-yard a well of brackish 
water, which in many places is found at a depth of 
six feet. There are near the shore two public wells — 
one due to a former English consul — which are used 
for watering the cattle, but the essential luxury of a 
fountain, or the convenience of a walk where the sand 
does not reach the ankles, has not been thought of. 
The sanitary inspection, under a talented German 
doctor, is very strict, and in some cases might, per- 
haps, be adopted with advantage at home. His word 
is law in all such matters as cleaning the streets, or 
removing nuisances ; no meat can be exposed for sale 
in the market, which has not been offered for his in- 



Chap. I. POPULATION.— DISEASES. 7 

spection before going to the slaughter-house ; no 
burial takes place without his certificate, though he 
only examines the body when death is suspected to 
result from plague or other infectious disease. He 
has not only the right to examine the bodies of 
females, but he can have them disinterred if buried 
without his certificate. Proceedings so contrary to 
Moslem prejudice, and even to Moslem law, afford 
perhaps the strongest proof that can be adduced 
of the utter disregard which the powers at Constan- 
tinople show to the religious laws of the Koran, as 
well as of the slavish submission of the people to the 
Government. 

The census just completed gives 1200 for the num- 
ber of houses in Benghazi, which, in this country, 
represents a population of 10,000 to 12,000 souls; the 
deaths in the last year were 333, and seem to favour 
the higher number, but they were above the annual 
average, in consequence of epidemic measles having 
carried off 57 children. In general, Benghazi may be 
considered the most healthy town in North Africa; 
neither fever nor dysentery are endemic here, nor is any 
other form of disease frequent, except ophthalmia, the 
prevalence of which may be ascribed to the general 
filthiness, and to the habit which the people have at 
night of sleeping exposed on the terraces, or in the 
damp court-yards. It is disgusting to see the little 



8 WAXDEEIXGS IX XOETH AFRICA. Chap. I. 

children, round whose inflamed eyes swarms of flies 
cluster, no one taking the trouble to drive them away. 
The markets are abundantly supplied with mutton ; 
occasionally beef is offered for sale; but vegetables 
and fruit are very rare, and, till the last six years, no- 
thing but onions were to be had. Though the sea 
abounds in excellent fish, the quantity taken is very 
small. Wine, potatoes, and fruit are sometimes to be 
had, brought from Malta or Canea, from whence the 
European and wealthier Turkish residents obtain their 
few luxuries. When I speak of wealth, it is in a 
comparative sense; probably no one, either native 
or foreigner, has a capital of 4000/. ; but there is no 
absolute poverty among the people, for the cultivation 
of the land is open to all, on paying a tax of one-tenth 
of the produce ; and, excepting the Morocco or Tunis 
Hajji, who pass through on their way to Mecca, I 
have never seen a beggar in Benghazi. 

The government of the province is in the hands of 
a Bey, sometimes sent from Constantinople, some- 
times nominated by the Pacha of Tripoli, to whom 
he is subordinate. Soliman Agha, the present Kai- 
makan, formerly in a domestic situation in his house- 
hold, was long Kehin to the present Pacha of Tripoli 
(Izzet Pacha), and by him was appointed to Ben- 
ghazi. His inability to read or write is considered no 
obstacle to his being an efficient Governor of an ex- 



Chap. I. GOVERNMENT OF BENGHAZI. 9 

tensive district ; and in the visits I paid him I must 
acknowledge that he seemed to be well-informed re- 
garding the affairs of his government, and to have 
an excellent memory. The object of such an ap- 
pointment is, of course, that the Pacha may have in 
Benghazi a dependant who will not interfere with his 
peculations. The Kaimakan, or Bey, is assisted by 
a Medjlis, or council, composed of the Cadi, Mufti, 
and some ten members chosen from among the 
principal persons of the place ; and his consideration 
is sustained by part of a regiment which is stationed 
here — the rest of it doing duty at the castles newly 
erected for the purpose of keeping the Arabs of the 
interior in subjection. The Consular body consists of 
an English Vice- Consul, a French Consular Agent, 
and Vice-Consuls — or calling themselves such — for 
Tuscany and Sardinia. All of them, excepting the 
Englishman, are merchants, and it may be questioned 
if their action is consequently as independent as it 
should be, when we remember the monetary transac- 
tions which they have with the customs, which are 
here administered by the local Government. I can 
personally bear testimony to the cordial hospitality of 
the French Consular Agent, M. Brest, and of his fa- 
mily; and to the unceasing attentions of M. Xerri, 
a young Maltese merchant, whom I found acting as 
Vice-Consul in the interim between the departure of the 

B 3 



10 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. I. 

last Consul and the arrival of his successor. Although 
the climate of Benghazi is perfectly wholesome, I should 
not recommend it to any one as a residence : there are 
few of the necessaries, and none of the luxuries, of life 
to be found there; above all, there is no kind of society. 
Its antiquities afford at most two days' employment. 
They consist of large squared blocks of stone scattered 
along the sea-shore, foundations of ancient buildings 
in the sea, between the reef, which probably formed 
the old mole, and the shore, with a flight of steps at 
the extremity of the former. The shore has sunk con- 
siderably in this part of the coast, as the foundations 
of buildings now beneath the water testify ; and often, 
after a winter storm, gems and medals are picked up 
on the beach. On the land side of the town, the sea 
has also made an irruption, forming a shallow lake in 
winter, w r hich dries up in summer, and leaves the sur- 
face glittering with salt, if the winds are not high : 
hence Benghazi may be said to be built on a narrow 
tongue of sand. On the opposite side of this lake, 
the summits of the hills to the south-east of the town 
are covered with old tombs, many of which are rifled, 
but not a few still yield vases and stalactites of 
terra cotta. It was from here that M. de Bourville 
obtained the splendid Panathenaic vases which adorn 
the Museum of the Louvre; but such good fortune 
is hardly to be looked for again. The existence of 



Chap. I. ANTIQUITIES OF BENGHAZI. 11 

the tombs is not indicated by monuments or other 
external marks, — a circumstance to which, perhaps, 
they owe their preservation, Some are grottoes cut 
in the rock, beneath its surface, and have long been 
sanded up ; the more common are rectangular exca- 
vations, about five feet by two feet, cut in the rock, 
and covered by rough flattish stones. These also 
are always found completely choked with sand ; they 
contain vases generally of a coarse quality, really fine 
vases being rare. The statuettes are, generally, much 
more beautiful ; and nothing can exceed the grace 
of some which I saw in Paris, derived from M. de 
Bourville's collection. Though this country is named 
by ancient writers as famed for its engravers, I have 
not seen a single fine intaglio or cameo found here. 

The modern costume of the Benghazini is simple, 
but not ungraceful, and, like that of all countries which 
have not yet adopted the tight-fitting fashions of 
Europe, is admirably adapted to the climate. The 
red cap (tarboush or takyeh), with which a cotton 
skull-cap (ma'raka) is generally worn, without the tur- 
ban. The under-garment consists of blue or white cot- 
ton drawers .(serwal), generally reaching to the ankles, 
and rather tight from the knee, exactly like those which 
one sees on the Roman statues of barbarian prisoners ; 
a shirt, with wide sleeves (sourieh), and a waistcoat 
without sleeves (fermleh), or with sleeves (reboun), 



12 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. I. 

"but this is not always worn. A long, narrow, woollen 
sash (hhezam) is wound several times round the body, 
and the whole is covered by the barracan (jerd), the 
simplest and most graceful, as it probably was the 
earliest, article of dress ever invented. It is of white or 
gray, sometimes of red wool, heavy or light, according 
to the season ; very like the Scotch plaid, though rather 
longer, but differently worn. One corner is looped to 
the edge, about a yard and a half from the end; the 
right arm and head are .passed through the aperture 
thus formed, the loop resting on the left shoulder ; the 
long end is next passed under the left elbow, and is 
then thrown across the right arm and shoulder. This 
is the usual way of wearing it in the town ; but in the 
country, or where exposed to the sun, a part of the 
breadth is passed over the head, and the end is brought 
over the left shoulder in front. Thus worn, it is 
exactly the costume of the antique statue of the sacri- 
flcator, which one sees in many museums. The ap- 
parent cleanliness of this costume, entirely white in 
summer, and its graceful folds, render it one of the 
most elegant I have ever seen. These barracans are, 
for the most part, the manufacture of Jerbel, in the 
regency of Tunis, and the finer have stripes of silk in- 
terwoven in the breadth. Socks or stockings (to com- 
plete my fashions of Benghazi) are seldom seen ; the 
yellow under- shoe (mest) more frequently. There are 



Chap. I. DEESS OF THE BENGHAZINI. 13 

three kinds of slippers worn : the red Egyptian (mar- 
koub) ; a yellow slipper, with no heel, and a red shoe, 
which leaves the instep quite uncovered, both called 
sebat. 

The barracan forms, also, the principal dress of the 
women ; but they wear it in a different way, making a 
petticoat of it, and a bag behind, in which they carry 
their children, or any other impedimenta they may 
have ; and they bring it in such a way over the face as 
to form a very effectual veil. I have seen none on 
whom this dress sat gracefully, and all seem frightfully 
dirty. Some of the children whom one sees rolling 
naked in the sand of the street would, if washed, be 
pretty, but the filth in which they are reared soon de- 
stroys all vestige of good looks. Both women and 
children wear immense hoop ear-rings, three and four 
inches in diameter, and sometimes four or five in each 
ear, inserted one above the other in the cartilage. The 
silver bracelets and anklets which complete their adorn- 
ment are sometimes of great weight. A Jewess in Ben- 
ghazi wears a pair of anklets which weigh five pounds. 

The flies form a remarkable feature, which must not 
be omitted in describing Benghazi. None of the 
plagues of Egypt could exceed them, and they often 
during the day render writing, or any occupation which 
does not leave one hand free for the fan, utterly impos- 
sible. They exist in myriads ; hence, the Turks call 



14 WANDERINGS IX NORTH AFRICA. Chap. I. 

Benghazi the fly kingdom ; and the flies by their perti- 
nacity and voracity evidently show that this is their 
own opinion. Nothing hut continual fanning can keep 
them off; even the musquitoe-net being unavailing 
against plagues which creep as well as fly. When very 
thirsty they draw blood, even through one's stockings, 
their bite resembling the sharp pricking of a leech ; 
and wafers left upon a table entirely disappear under 
their attacks in a very short time. In the evening, if 
disturbed on the curtains, they rise in hundreds, mak- 
ing a rushing noise like pheasants when a well-stocked 
cover is beaten. In addition to the plague of flies, the 
shrill trumpet of musquitoes keeps one constantly on 
the qui vive, but their bite is not venomous like that of 
the musquitoes of Syria, Egypt, or even Italy ; and it 
is rather the association of ideas which renders them 
harassing, than any actual injury they inflict. Other in- 
sects, though not unknown, are seldom seen, or with a 
little care may be entirely avoided. The first day I was 
in Benghazi my servant killed a tarantula, a hideous, 
rough-backed, flat-headed lizard, in the room I was 
put up in ; but I have not seen a second. Nor have I 
met with any scorpions, though they are sometimes 
found ; their bite is hardly to be called venomous. So 
insensible is the Arab epidermis to pain, that a native 
hardly takes the trouble to apply even a little butter 
or honey to the wound. 



Chap. I. BENGHAZI AETIZANS. 15 

Scarcely any trades, beyond those of the most ne- 
cessary description, are exercised at Benghazi. The 
French Consul, during my stay there, was unable to 
have a pane of glass put into a window; the Tunisian 
who formerly performed such feats having allowed 
himself to die. The glass was there, but no one could 
cut it to the size of the window. There are Jews here, 
into whose hands most of the less laborious trades 
have fallen, as is usual in all countries, especially in 
the East. They can sew a covering for your divan, or 
make up the cushions; they will repair, in a certain 
fashion, any article of silver or gold, or make you a 
saddle-cloth, or a sabre belt. They are ready to turn 
their hands to anything ; but after showing themselves 
serviceable as may be, ask prices equal to about ten 
times what would be demanded in Bond Street. A 
few days before starting for the interior, I wished to 
have some balls cast, and I soon saw the same Jews 
at work who a few days before had come to repair a 
silver nargilih, which had passed through an Arab 
servant's hands. They worked in the court of my 
house ; the casting of balls being a highly prohibited 
operation. I was amused at the way in which they 
set to work. Two commenced, but before the end of 
the performance a third came to their aid, and then two 
more, apparently to lighten the labour by the charms of 
their conversation. My Jews sat down opposite to each 



16 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFKICA. Chap. I. 

other, and scraped a hole in the ground "between them. 
In this they placed some lead, and covered it with 
charcoal, which they soon blew into a bright heat by 
means of a pair of bellows made of an entire goat's 
skin, one end of which was fitted with a nozzle, while 
the edges of the other extremity were sewed to two flat 
sticks, so as to open or close by the pressure of the 
hand. The lead was now melted, and to extract it 
from its primitive crucible a little bit of tin, which was 
lying on the ground, the lining of an old packing-case, 
was slipped and fashioned into something like the 
bowl of a ladle, and this, held by a pair of pincers, was 
all the apparatus required. It was highly simple, but 
the quantity of wood and charcoal consumed was enor- 
mous, and it took nearly five hours to cast little more 
than a hundred balls. It must be confessed, in favour 
of the Jews, that if their filth and ignorance equal 
those of their brethren in all these countries, they are 
not behind them in industry. They are the only hard 
workers in the place : other tradesmen, whether Moslem 
or Maltese, seeming utterly indifferent to obtaining 
custom. I required a framework for a divan, and the 
Maltese carpenter whom I had sent for, after keeping 
me two days waiting, send word on the Monday that he 
would come next week. I therefore found a couple of 
Jews, who knocked together a very creditable divan in 
two hours. One of the community, who by a series 



Chap. I. BENGHAZI JEWS. 17 

of most ingenious manoeuvres has contrived to obtain 
English protection, and is now broker to the Vice- Con- 
sulate, was hardly ever out of my house during my 
stay in Benghazi. His voice was generally the first I 
heard in full exercise about sunrise, and from time 
to time during the entire day, his tongue seemed 
never to tire of discharging bad Arabic and worse 
Italian. Such cleverness, such industry, never were 
employed for smaller ends, for his profits must be in- 
considerable. He knows, I believe, every article in 
every house in the town, as well as if he had taken 
an inventory of their contents, and when he pronounces 
some longed-for object unattainable, it is certain that 
neither money, diplomacy, nor address have been able 
to discover its existence. 

There is nothing to be said of the domestic habits 
of the Moslem inhabitants. Their life is less lux- 
urious, their feasts are less frequent and less gay than 
those of richer places ; they have few or no amuse- 
ments, and there is no bath in the town, excepting 
in the castle, where there is one capable of containing 
a single person. I have nowhere seen Moslemin so 
dirty in person. 



CHAPTER II. 



Preparations for Departure from Benghazi. — Leave Benghazi. — 
Arab Horses. — Ruins of Kasa Tawileh. — Labiar. — "What an 
Arab is. — Mode of Travelling. — Eetinue. — Silphium. — Tombs. — 
Cyrene. 

I was detained in Benghazi much longer than I could 
have wished by the non- arrival of a vessel containing a 
part of my luggage, and by the beginning of Eamadhan, 
during which time it is next to impossible to travel. 

Servants who are fasting all day cannot be expected 
to be much inclined for exertion, and as at night they 
sit up to gossip, or to sing, waiting till it is time to 
take the last meal before the dawn, it is hopeless in a 
tent to look for sleep. I made up my mind, therefore, 
to wait till this month was over, and gave orders for a 
start on the morrow of the Bairam. This, however, 
happened to be Wednesday, and my guide represented 
to me that Wednesday is the most unlucky of days to 
start on a journey, and the argument was too sound 
for me to think of opposing it. Thursday afternoon 
w T as, therefore, fixed on, but so little notion have the 



Chap. II. PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE. 19 

Arabs of punctuality, and so little are Arab servants 
of use in preparing for a journey, that everything had 
to be done by my European servant, and it was Satur- 
day morning before I left the town. An Arab mer- 
chant, who was frequently in the habit of visiting me, 
gave me, however, some consolation for the delay, by 
explaining that the seventh is the luckiest day in the 
month, and as Saturday was the seventh, I had only 
gained by the change of day. This is, perhaps, the 
place to describe my equipment for the journey, and 
my companions. I bought two wretched horses for 
myself and servant, hired a quick stepping camel to 
carry a light tent, carpets, and other articles required 
during the day (which was ridden by a young Arab 
servant, who acts as coffee-maker and pipe-filler), and 
other camels for carrying the rest of the baggage, in- 
cluding a larger tent, crowbars and pickaxes for ex- 
cavations, with water-skins and barley for six days for 
the horses. My guide, an immense man, one Mo- 
hammed El Adouly, provided his own horse, rather a 
showy white mare, and one of the best I had seen in 
the country ; mounted upon this, and enveloped in his 
white barracan, new yellow and red shoes on his feet, 
which rested in the broad shovel- shaped brass stirrups; 
his long gun slung over his shoulders, with a blunder- 
buss at his saddle bow ; a pair of pistols slung under 
the left arm, and a Koran and a white bundle of talis- 



20 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. II. 

mans under the right — he presented a very majestic 
figure, and evidently thought so himself. He was re- 
commended to me as an indispensable guide for such 
a journey, as he is well known to all the Bedawin in 
the country, and his last wife was from the neighbour- 
hood of Grennah; he had accompanied M. de Bour- 
ville and one or two English Vice- Consuls in their ex- 
cursions through this country. I am, in general, averse 
to taking into my service such necessary personages, as 
they invariably endeavour to become the masters ; but 
as the written information concerning the places I was 
to visit is very scanty, and no trust can be placed in 
the oral communication of the natives, I submitted to 
the infliction. I was determined, however, to have my 
own way, in which I succeeded very well, retrenching 
myself in my English coldness, while listening to his 
reasons why I should not do as I proposed, and then 
simply repeating the order ; this being somewhat the 
Turkish fashion, he soon understood my method, and 
for some time obeyed my orders without opposition. 
In addition to Mohammed and the pipe-boy, I had with 
me a tall thin man, who fancied himself a cook, and an 
inexpressibly dirty fellow who was to groom the horses, 
and also make himself generally useful. The breed 
of horses in the Pentapolitan is sadly degenerated 
from its renown in former times ; they are small and 
ill made, with no appearance of Arab blood ; but there 



Chap. II. LEAVE BENGHAZI.— AEAB HOESES. 21 

are a few in the interior which have great powers of 
endurance. My servant's horse, of the Dongola Dreed, 
which had "been reduced to a skeleton hy a thirty-five 
days 5 journey, during which his only food was what he 
could pick up on the road, promises to turn out a 
"better horse than is usually met with in the country ; 
he delights me hy the very knowing look, which he 
owes to his ears being slit at the top — a sign that 
he was foaled at night. 

After much screaming and scolding among the 
drivers, and the usual amount of growling on the part 
of the camels, everything was got into marching order, 
and, accompanied hy some of my acquaintance, who 
escorted me for an hour out of the town, I quitted 
Benghazi. We stopped in about an hour and a half to 
fill the water-skins, at a deep well of cool and sweet 
water, as we were to find none till the next day, at 
Labiar. Our route was in a south-easterly direction, 
across the hills, which bound the plain of Benghazi, 
and while my luggage made directly for the spot 
where we were to spend the night, I made a long de- 
tour to visit a ruin called Kasa Tawileh, through an 
uninteresting country, and without finding anything 
to reward my exertion. At about six hours and a 
half from Benghazi we reached the foot of the hills, 
and entered a beautiful ravine clothed with bushes and 
underwood; here we saw some coveys of partridges, 



22 WAlTOEKOrGS IS XOETH AFRICA. Chap. II. 

a few Lares, and flights of wood-pigeons; but the 
Arabs galloping about frightened them, so that it was 
impossible to get a shot. They never think of firing 
except when the game is on the ground, having never 
dreamt of a flying shot : but their flint-locks gene- 
rally missing fire, their poaching does not do much 
harm to the game. "We slept in an open space towards 
the end of the ravine. The hills around it are called 
Bu Miriam, and from them we descended the next 
morning to the great plain called Gkat-es- Sultan, which 
stretches away to the right ; we crossed it in a south- 
east direction to Labiar. The country to the edge of 
the hill, at the foot of which lies the valley of Labiar. 
is covered with low underwood, juniper trees occa- 
sionally rising amidst it. 

From Benghazi to Labiar is fourteen hours of camel 
travelling. 

Labiar presents a strange appearance ; a marabut on 
a slight eminence looks down upon a long stony vale, 
in which are several wells, but not a trace of vegeta- 
tion. These were surrounded by Bedawin busily em- 
ploved in drawing water in goat-skins, while their 
flocks and herds covered the bare rocky sides of the 
surrounding hills, patiently waiting their turn to 
approach the watering-place. From constant agita- 
tion the water in these wells is always muddy, and 
even of this the cattle only have a drink once in two 



! *•• • 
I 

Chap.'II. LABIAE. — WHAT AN ARAB IS. 23 

or three days, as many are driven from pasture grounds 
at a great distance. Here we were visited by hosts of 
Bedawin, who formed a circle round the small day- 
tent in which I was resting until the camels should 
come up. Nothing was to he learned from their con- 
versation, hut they left hehind them many lively remi- 
niscences of their visit, and as this was the case every 
time a Bedawy visited me, I soon came to the reso- 
lution of forbidding their reception. The genuine 
Bedawy, of this country at least, is one of the dirtiest 
animals on the earth; their dress is often nothing 
but a brown barracan, which is a mass of rags, and a 
dirty, very dirty, skull-cap. There is one of them in 
this neighbourhood, who boasts of not having used 
water for forty years, and it is only rarely that any of 
them make external use of this precious commodity. 
The sheikh of Labiar brought me a small skin of milk, 
and I bought of him a sheep for the evening's meal, 
which he made me pay dear for, though he refused 
money for his milk, as to take money for it would be, 
as he said, ('aib,) " a shame." 

Beyond Labiar, the country becomes less barren, 
being covered with short grass, which, even when 
quite dry, has a greenish yellow tone ; it is thickly 
dotted with thorny plants, some of which were just 
bursting into fresh leaf, and were most gaily green. 

In four and a half hours from Labiar, our route 



24 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. II. 

taking a direction east by north, we reached Sanct Bella 
Ghiir, where we stopped near a well ill supplied with 
water. From this vast plain five hours' travelling over 
a beautiful range of hills called Jebel Fawaid, through 
gorges clothed with the juniper — here almost a stately 
tree — brought us to the wells of Elbenish, which pre- 
sented a very similar appearance to those of Labiar, 
though the country round the Wadi, in which they lie, 
is less bare. While my tent was being pitched for the 
mid- day repose, I rode to a distance of twenty minutes 
to the north to see the remains of a ruined castle, 
called by the Arabs Kasr Jbilla. It is a square build- 
ing, with towers at the corners, built of oblong blocks 
of wrought stone, of which, in some parts, several 
courses still exist, devoid of ornament ; it may belong 
to Eoman, or still earlier times. Placed on the sum- 
mit of a conical hill, it commands an extensive view, 
and may have been destined to serve as a place of 
refuge from the attacks of the nomad tribes. With every 
care I could discover no trace of the inscriptions of 
which Delia Cella speaks, and am inclined to think he 
mistook for characters the effect of the weather on the 
worn surface of the stones. The Arabs of the neigh- 
bourhood (they are Anaghir) bury their dead round 
the walls, and I saw several recent graves. 

From Elbenich we entered the Jebel el Abid, inha- 
bited by Arabs of the same name, and in four hours 



Chap. II. MODE OF TEAYEL.— EETINUE. 



25 



reached Zardes, where we slept, keeping, however, a 
good watch, as the Abid have a villanous reputation 
for thieving, and during the night gave us more than 
one alerte. Zardes is a valley containing wells, and 
surrounded by hills, in the protruding summits of 
which are many crevices, wherein grow the juniper 
and wild thyme, whose perfume fills the air ; the 
ground around glittering with white flowers. This 
country, towards evening, when a pink tinge covers 
it, reminded me frequently of a Scotch moor. The 
next day was a fatiguing one ; there being no suit- 
able place for resting in the middle of the jour- 
ney, I rode six hours before I halted my party. I 
generally left the camels with my servant, to prevent 
loitering, and rode on ahead with a guide and some 
Arab attendants. At the leisurely pace of an Arab 
traveller I gained upon the luggage fifteen or twenty 
minutes in every hour. I have noted the distances, 
for convenience' sake, by the times of the departure and 
arrival of the camels, (at which I was always present,) 
their pace being uniform. I rode on or loitered on 
the road. Mohammed, in all his magnificence, led 
the way; the servants, equally well armed, being 
generally with him, and any chance traveller who might 
have joined the caravan; I usually followed a little in 
the rear. My guide and the other Arabs from time 
to time solaced themselves with song. They have two 

c 



26 WAKDEKINGS IN NOBTH AFEICA. Chap. II. 

or three airs, all equally unmusical and strange, 
which, is remarkable, as the music of the countries 
on either side — Egypt and Tunis — is very pretty. 
The leader sings a couple of lines, which he constantly 
repeats with slight variations, while the rest join in a 
strange howling chorus. The verse is generally ex- 
tempore, containing little rhyme and still less reason, 
and the best idea I can give of its import and style is 
by recalling the nursery ditty, — 

Here we go up, up, up, 
Now we go down, down. 

Chorus — How, wow, how. 

as like bow wow wow as can be. 

In leaving Zardes our road lay for three hours over 
hills covered with large junipers and other trees of the 
cypress tribe. This species of juniper is indigenous 
to the Cyrenaica ; it is the Thuya of Pliny, and though 
it now only furnishes the small rough beams of which 
the roofing of the Benghazi houses is formed, it was 
in ancient times extensively used in upholstery, and 
furnished the precious citrian tables to the luxury of 
Greece and Eome. The wood has a bright yellow 
colour, and might, I should think, become again fa- 
shionable if introduced into Europe.* 

* In the morning it emits a perfume, which is delicious in the 
open air, but in a closed space I should think stupifying, like the 



Chap. II. THE POISONOUS SILPHIUM. 27 

We now came to an extensive plain called El-Hhiah, 
and further on to Sharb Tawalun, which was entirely- 
burnt up, though the camels still found ample amuse- 
ment, as they stragglingly loitered along, in plucking 
on this side and on that the half-dried tufts of thorny 
shrubs with which it is overgrown. Merawah, eleven 
hours distant, was our next halting- place ; near it we 
started numbers of gazelles, which I could not get 
within shot of, though I had murdering intentions, our 
stock of provisions being very low. Here the camel 
drivers were busy, all the evening, preparing muzzles 
for the camels, to prevent them eating the Drids, with 
which the country between here and Cyrene is covered. 
Most authors consider this plant to be the old Sil- 
jphium, though its medicinal virtues are forgotten, and 
it is only known as the dreaded poison which threatens 
the lives of camels which are not reared in this tract 
of country. It is from no partiality for its flavour 
that they eat it, for they refuse it when offered to them. 
They crop it as they pass along, tempted by the long 
stem, which brings it so near their noses. It is at 
the present season, when in seed, that it is considered 
most deadly ; I am told that in spring it is unnecessary 
to take precautions against it. If not the real Sil- 
jphium, it certainly answers to the description given 

Circean enchantments ; it is said to be that with which Circe 
fumigated her grotto. 

C % 



28 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. II. 

of the. plant by Theophrastus, and I cannot think the 
objection to its identity urged by the learned M. Du- 
chalais, from the form of the seed on the medals, is of 
much weight. I have seen seeds which nearly enough 
resemble the Magydaris on the medals, though they 
certainly are not heart-shaped, but the plant itself, as re- 
presented on them, is evidently what Mr. Pugin would 
call a conventional Silphiuni, for no plant of this spe- 
cies has the stem so thick in proportion to its height 
and flower. The seeds are highly medicinal, but I was 
unfortunately too late to ascertain if it yields a juice 
corresponding to the ancient Opos. 

The next day our travelling froin Alerawah to Sireh, 
nine hours, and thence to Slimt, two hours, was very 
slow, for the camels, with their mouths tied up, were 
in a very bad humour, and could hardly be made to 
move. The appearance of the country was now varied 
by a number of caroub trees, which, contrasted with 
the duller juniper, looked of a bright green, and 
afforded a most grateful shade. Half-way between 
Alerawah and Sireh is a large reservoir of ancient con- 
struction. It had been supported on six columns, and 
in many places the cement still adheres to the walls. 
There being no well in this neighbourhood, it was 
constructed to collect the rain-water from the hill at 
whose base it lies ; its presence denotes, I presume, 
the site of some old town or village ; but I observed 



Chap. II. TOMBS USED AS DWELLINGS. 



29 



no other remains of antiquity in its neighbourhood. 
Tt is true that the morning was very hot, and I, 
perhaps, gave myself little trouble in looking for 
them.* At Sireh are remains of a square castle, 
like that which I visited at Elbenich, but not so well 
preserved nor in so commanding a situation. Many 
similar remains of castles, which probably formed a 
line of defence against the border tribes, are to be seen 
on the summits of the hills. In the face of the 
rocks at Sireh are many excavations, devoid of orna- 
ment, and evidently intended as sepulchres, though 
the Arabs, of course, assert that they were the abodes 
of the ancient inhabitants. At Slunt the rock is bur- 
rowed with such excavations, each with a fore-court 
cut in the rock, having one or three entrances to the 
sepulchral chambers, some of which are most exten- 
sive, and supported by rude columns. I found one 
occupied by Arab ladies, who did not welcome my 

* At all the wells many Arabs were to be seen ; and occasionally 
horsemen were met with, but generally two or three together ; for 
though the country is now peaceful enough, the associations of 
t other days seemed to deter them from venturing out singly. In no 
part of the road did we see a trace of an encampment, and the 
whole country seemed deserted excepting in the neighbourhood of 
the wells. On my remarking this to my guide, he said that the 
country was filled with inhabitants, but that they pitch their tents 
in the places least likely to be visited by passers by, to avoid 
too frequent calls on their hospitality. The Arabs here have a 
great reputation for this virtue, but it appears that they are not 
ambitious of exercising it. 



30 WANDEEI]S T GS IN XORTH AFRICA. Chap. II 

visit ; probably thinking I had sinister intentions on 
their grain, for which it served as a magazine. It was 
certainly from no Oriental idea of the sacredness of 
the Hareem that they seemed so relieved when I 
turned my horse's head. The Bedawin women, dirty 
and tattooed, have no difficulty in showing their bare 
faces to strangers ; and, notwithstanding the stories of 
Herodotus, I think there is no risk in their doing so. 
They wear leather leggings up to the knee ; in other 
respects their dress differs little, except in its darker 
colour, from that of the Benghazi women. 

The next morning a ride of two hours and a quarter 
through an interesting country brought us to the Mara- 
but Sidi Mohammed el Himary, where there is an ill- 
supplied well, and a rock, under which a shade may be 
obtained without the trouble of pitching a tent. Barth, 
I think, gives this as the site of the ancient Balaerai, 
whose distance was twelve miles from Cyrene; but it 
took my camels seven hours and a half from here to 
Grennah, which, at the slowest rate of travelling, must 
give fifteen miles, and from the length of time I was 
on horseback I should judge the distance nearer * 
eighteen. The ride from here to Grennah is worth 
a journey from Europe. About half-way, after pass- 
ing through a valley containing many splendid old 
junipers, under which goats, flocked together, were 
enjoying the shade, we came to a spring of living 



Chap. II. 



ARRIVE AT CYRENE. 



31 



water, called Menezzah Wad Fairyeh. The rest of the 
journey was over a range of low undulating hills, 
offering, perhaps, the most lovely sylvan scenery in 
the world. The country is like a most beautifully ar- 
ranged Jardin Anglais, covered with pyramidal clumps 
of evergreens, variously disposed, as if by the hand 
of the most refined taste ; while bosquets of junipers 
and cedars, relieved by the pale olive and the bright 
green of the tall arbutus tree, afford a most grateful 
shade from the mid-day sun. In one of these bowers 
I had my carpet spread for luncheon ; some singing 
birds joined their voices to the lively chirping of the 
grasshoppers, and around fluttered many a gaily- 
painted butterfly. The old capital of the Pentapolis 
was before me, yet I was strongly tempted to pitch my 
tent for a time in this fairy scene. 

" Nunc viridi membra sub arbuto 
Stratus, nunc ad aquse lene caput sacrae." 

Whoever has traversed these fresh groves in the 
parching heat of an African July can understand 
the enthusiastic praises of the older writers, and 
why the Arabs, coming from the Desert, called the 
country the Green Mountain. As we approached 
Cyrene, this exuberant vegetation disappeared, and in 
its place we passed through long avenues of tombs, 
hewn in the rock, or out of it ; next we came in sight 



32 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. II. 

of the mined towers of the old city walls ; and then, 
through a long line of ruins, we reached the street of 
Battus, where a narrow gorge opeus upon a mag- 
nificent view over plains and hills to the blue Medi- 
terranean. I rode on to the cave whence gushes the 
perennial spring of Cyre, took a draught of its bright, 
cool water, and fixed my temporary home beneath 
the world-famed fountain, amidst the countless ruins of 
temples and public buildings. 



CHAPTEK III. 



Grennah. — Arab Conversation. — Fountain of Cyre. — Bums of 
Cyrene. — Interrupted by Bedawin. — Ruins of a Theatre. — Bas- 
reliefs. — Inscriptions. — Terraces. — Temple of iEsculapius. — Aque- 
duct. — Cyrene's History unknown. — Its Euinous state. 

My first day in Grennah was entirely occupied in the 
very matter of fact, hut not less necessary, employment 
of arranging my encampment, whilst Mohammed was 
equally busy in receiving the visits of his Arab friends, 
in whose society he entirely forgot me ; he seemed to 
imagine that he was making a tour of pleasure with 
the Frank in his suite, not that he was in the service 
of the Frank. He took possession of the Grotto of 
the Fountain, and established himself on sundry mats 
and carpets in a part which is now dry. I also went 
there for shelter from the hot sun, while my larger 
tent was being prepared; and sat by the bubbling 
water, out of reach of the Bedawin and their fleas, but 
close enough to hear the Babel- screaming of their 

c 3 



34 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFEICA. Chap. III. 

i J 

conversation, and to be amused by its monotony. The 
Arabs are great talkers, but the range of their ideas is 
remarkably limited, so that the day is often passed in 
an unceasing repetition of the same words. I noted 
down such a conversation, and, as a favourable speci- 
men of causerie, I transcribe it here. There arrived 
a gray-bearded old Bedawy, with a long gun, and 
pistols in his belt, but in all other respects a striking 
contrast to the city brave whom he had come to see. 
As he came up, he pronounced, "Es-selam alaik" 
(" Peace be with you"); receiving a long, drawling 
answer, "Alaik es-selam" ("With you be peace"). 
He then went up to Mohammed, and touched his right 
hand, whereon each kissed the palm of his own hand ; 
he then literally fell on Mohammed's neck, and kissed 
it on the right side, just below the whisker — a salute 
which was immediately returned. Now began a rolling 
fire of questions and answers, in such quick succes- 
sion, that it required a practised ear to follow their 
meaning ; neither party seeming to pay attention to 
question or answer — both being already, no doubt, 
aware of their import. After repeating the words, 
" Es-selam," several times, then came the inquiry, 
" How is your state ? How are you ? How is your 
humour?" The answer was, "May your state be 
peaceful;" or " Praise be to God ;" — an answer, gene- 
rally, given only to very pointed inquiries after health. 



Chap. III. GRENKAH. — ARAB CONVERSATION. 35 

These questions were repeated three or four times. 
Then again, " Es-selam, How is your state ? how is 
your humour ? how is the state behind you ? " — mean- 
ing the family left at home. Again, " Es-selam, How 
is your state ? "how is the state of your house (wife) ? " 
Again, " Es-selam, How is the state of your children ?" 
and so continually with the same words, varying the 
final interrogatory by asking after his brother, and his 
mare, and his cows, and his sheep, — in fine, after all 
things that are his, down to the most insignificant of 
his possessions ; each being the object of a particular 
inquiry. Next came the gist of the conversation — 
half an hour having been, perhaps, thus passed in 
preliminaries — which affected the value of the in- 
quirer's own possessions, for the child of Nature has 
a keen eye to business. " What is the price of com 
in Benghazi?" — then a string of salams. Presently he 
asks what barley is selling at, and then follow re- 
newed inquiries after his friend's state and humour; 
as if the fatigue of answering so many questions may 
have altered them. When reassured on this point, he 
slips in an inquiry, " How much do oxen fetch ? " and 
if he be a keen politician he next attacks the local 
news : " Why has the Pacha come to Benghazi ? " 
" Is the Bey going to be dismissed ? " " Is it true that 
there is war with the French in Tripoli ? " and so on 
he questions ; but the great poiot of interest is the 



36 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. Ill- 

state of the markets. Such conversations to one who 
has nothing to buy or sell, are naturally rather mono- 
tonous; and their charm was not sufficient to over- 
come my dread of the various parasites which con- 
stantly lurk under an Arab "barracan. Had I not at 
once determined upon excluding the Bedawin from my 
tent, I should have sacrificed every moment of study 
or quiet. A visit of three hours' duration is not a long 
one for an Arab, though the greater part is sometimes 
passed in silence, after the first torrent of words has 
burst forth ; and on seeing a cool, well-carpeted tent, 
few of the tribe would make any scruple, if once ad- 
mitted, of stretching themselves out, and sleeping 
through the heat of the day. 

Having settled myself comfortably in a delightful 
position, I now set about taking a general view of the 
ruins ; and I soon found that, to obtain any true no- 
tion of the details, I must form a plan for visiting, in 
some kind of order, the vast labyrinth which lay before 
me. There are many miles of Necropolis, extending 
all round the city; and, in some places, the monu- 
ments and sarcophagi rise in terraces of ten, and even 
twelve rows, one above the other. The ruins of the 
town itself are in such a state of dilapidation, that it 
would require no little study to obtain a satisfactory 
idea of their nature ; there are few remains of private 
dwellings above ground, and extensive excavations 



Chap. III. RUIN'S. — FOUNTA IN OF CYRE. 



37 



would be required to uncover them. The excavator 
would doubtless reap a rich harvest, particularly of 
medals and, perhaps, of other small works of art. 
Temples, public buildings, and tombs, being more 
exposed to violation, are less likely than private dwell- 
ings to reward the excavator ; in modern times, how- 
ever, none of the visitors who have excavated here 
have applied themselves to clearing the houses, which 
would require great perseverance and the expenditure 
of considerable funds. It is almost impossible for an 
amateur traveller to attempt such excavations; for 
they demand his continued presence on the spot, to 
prevent the abstraction of the smaller objects which 
may be found, and the wanton destruction of others ; 
and the jealousy of the natives, who regard him as a 
treasure- seeker, can only be effectually repressed by 
the aid of the Government. I did not, therefore, push 
my researches beyond the platform on which the an- 
cient agora stood, as, my tents being pitched there, 
it was easy to watch the excavators. 

On arriving at Grennah, the first object which 
naturally attracts the traveller's attention, is the foun- 
tain of Oyre — the cause which led to the choice of 
this site for building the city, and, in the days of its 
prosperity, the spot round which most of the public 
buildings were grouped. Though the volume of water 
which it pours out has much diminished, even in the 



38 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. III. 

memory of mam it is still the most abundant spring 
in this neighbourhood ; and flocks of sheep and goats, 
and herds of cattle, daily cover the ground where once 
the sacred rites of Apollo, or the affairs of their 
prosperous commerce, assembled the citizens of 
Cyrene. The stream of water issues from a natural 
passage, artificially widened; it falls into a shallow, 
square reservoir, cut in the ground of the cave ; and 
hence it was formerly distributed, through a series of 
stone channels, of which many fragments still remain. 
The external rock is smoothed to receive the addition 
of a portico of that beautiful white limestone, closer- 
grained than marble, which acquires in time a warm 
golden hue. The line of the fronton, deeply cut in 
the rock, shows the outline of its architecture, and the 
three lower courses of masonry, its material. In the 
rock to the right is an inscription, beautifully cut, re- 
cording a restoration of the fountain, which, from its 
position, as well as its clear, simple characters, may well 
be of earlier date than the first century, which is gene- 
rally assigned to it. In front of the fountain, two 
massive walls support narrow platforms, the lower of 
which is covered with the foundations of buildings, 
whose marble fragments indicate considerable magni- 
ficence. Beneath these extends a broad terrace, 700 
feet in length, supported by a lofty and very massive 
wall, which is still in great part entire. One end of 



Chap. Ill, EUINS OF CYEENE. 39 

this terrace is closed by a wall of more recent con- 
struction, built apparently to shut out the old Greek 
theatre, which lies beyond it; the other opens on the 
street of Battus, and, in part, is bounded by a road 
running from this, round the base of the eastern hill. 
On this platform, which formed the agora, stood many 
temples and public buildings ; and it is here that the 
monument of Battus, mentioned by Pindar, as stand- 
ing at the end of the market-place, must be looked 
for. As one stands in front of the fountain, looking 
to the sea, this platform, covered with ruins, lies at 
one's feet ; while beyond, the long lines of the Eastern 
Necropolis wind round the curves of the hills, and the 
plain beneath is seen dotted with ruins, or intersected 
by old roads. To the left, immediately beneath the 
fountain, are the remains of a very large building, 
whose massive fragments of marble cornices and co- 
lumns indicate its importance, as well as its more re- 
cent date. Among the rubbish lie fluted columns, the 
headless statue of a sitting female figure, and some 
fragments of inscriptions. No building in the agora 
seems to have equalled this in size ; and I believe that 
all my predecessors agree in considering it to be the 
Temple of Apollo. To the left of this building, be- 
hind, and almost touching it at one angle, is a temple 
of more ancient construction, the lower parts of four of 
whose columns still remain in situ. Still further to 



40 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFBICA. Chap. III. 

the left, is a small building, in front of which some 
former excavator has uncovered a finely-draped statue 
of a Roman empress, and on a marble near, is an 
inscription, nearly defaced, belonging, perhaps, to its 
pedestal. The arms and head, originally separate, have 
been removed, as well as the, probably, metal girdle of 
the waist. I continued the excavation round this mo- 
nument, with no other result than finding a coarse 
white mosaic pavement, and a long subterranean pas- 
sage, which seems to have been a sewer. Almost in a 
line with this building, still to the left, and close to the 
boundary-wall, is a monument of great interest. It is 
of massive construction, and evidently of ancient date, 
and, in plan, bears a strong resemblance to some of the 
finest monuments in the Necropolis. Its situation, its 
size, its antiquity, leave no doubt on my mind that 
this is the Heroon of Battus, whose monument was 
erected in the market-place, while the kings, his suc- 
cessors, reposed each in front of his own palace. I 
had the greater part of the interior of this monument 
dug out, without finding anything but a few fragments 
of bronze and ivory, of terra cotta of the very oldest 
workmanship, and a part of an alabaster vase, of re- 
markable thinness; but no inscription rewarded me, 
either by confirming my conjecture, or by assigning 
another origin to the monument. Whilst digging here, 
the excavators were interrupted by some Bedawin, 



Chap. III. INTERRUPTED BY THE BEDAWIK 41 

who came to prevent my further researches in the 
ruins ; hut, as they were armed, and seemed half in- 
clined to violence, and were very impertinent, I refused 
to listen to them. I told them that the land was the 
Sultan's— a proposition which they did not controvert ; 
and then I asked if they, or their fathers, had either 
built or bought " the castle." My argument might be 
bad, but added to a resolute countenance, it was good 
enough to prevent any renewal of such obstructions 
from the natives. 

Turning to the right, we behold a vast mass of 
confused substructures, the ground plan of a very large 
collection of buildings, though it would be difficult to 
assign to them a name. One very large chamber, 
near the edge of the platform, I found, on excava- 
tion, paved with a coating of the stucco used for 
reservoirs, and beneath this a broken pavement of 
Cipollino marble. The remaining parts of the 
building give no indication of its having been a bath, 
and its position forbids the idea that it was a reservoir. 
Further to the right are two other ruins, with arches 
and columns of Cipollino and a coarse white marble. 
To the right, the buildings advance to the edge of the 
platform, while in front of the fountain, and to the 
left, there is a wide space between the large masses of 
ruin and the well which supports the terrace. In this 
there are few remains of old buildings, the ground 



42 WAKDEEIKGS W NOETH AFEICA. Chap. III. 

having been long used by the Bedawin as a corn- 
field; but the few fragments scattered here and there 
render it probable that buildings were not wanting 
in this direction ; at least, such as would be required 
for the accommodation of the assemblies of the citi- 
zens. 

Proceeding along the platform, and crossing the wall 
which closes it to the west, we come to the best pre- 
served monument in Cyrene, the old Greek theatre. 
Its form, nearly three-fourths of a circle, occupied by 
seats, is almost perfect, but the proscenium has dis- 
appeared. Some attempts which I made to discover 
the line of the stage were fruitless, as they brought to 
light only loose stones which had fallen from the wall 
above. The external wall is still perfect, rising per- 
pendicularly from the ground beneath in a curve, and 
I am inclined to ascribe the disappearance of the stage 
and its decorations to a very remote date. It seems, 
from the wall which completely sequesters it from the 
agora, that this theatre, notwithstanding its admirable 
position, must have fallen into disuse, and been dis- 
mantled, for not a fragment of marble is to be found 
in its circuit. Had the present ruin resulted only 
from the barbarians, or from natural causes, there 
would have remained, at least, blocks of marble, as in 
the other monuments of the town, but none such 
would be found, if, as I conjecture, the ancients them- 



Chap. HI. RUINS OF A THEATRE. 43 

selves removed these decorations to use them in some 
one of the other theatres, of which we shall find re- 
mains. I counted twenty-seven rows of seats, and 
conjectured twelve or fourteen more buried under the 
ruins fallen from above. I much regretted that the 
enormous masses of these ruins made it impossible 
for me to attempt clearing the interior, as no building 
of Cyrene is of a more interesting epoch, and none 
so perfect ; its form, also, is uncommon. It is built 
in the side of the hill, and the rampart wall which 
supported the stage is nearly forty feet high to the 
level of the orchestra. A flight of steps from the 
top leads down to the orchestra ; and there seems also 
to have been an entrance on a level with it from the 
east. Immediately beneath the theatre, on a lower 
terrace of the hill, are the ruins of a large building, 
consisting of three very perfect and beautifully pro- 
portioned arches, with a fourth at right angles to 
them. In front of them is a large quadrangle now 
occupied by a Bedawy, as garden ground, and be- 
neath lie many remnants of fluted columns in white 
marble, and their capitals, whose execution is more 
pure and careful than that of any other fragments to be 
found in the ruins. InBeechey's plan this is noted as 
a temple, and though, at first, I was inclined to regard 
it as a reservoir for the waters of the fountain, which 
were in part carried in this direction, I, on further 



44 



WAXDERIXGS IK FORTH AFRICA. Chap. III. 



ex animation,, found nothing to justify a disagreement 
with so great an authority. 

Leaving the fountain, we proceed in a southerly di- 
rection up the ravine, which forms the street of Bat- 
tus ; on either side the hills are steep, presenting sur- 
faces of rock, in some of which tombs had been evi- 
dently excavated; while to the right, although the 
rock has been in many places smoothed away, or 
even hollowed, it is more probable, from the remains 
of masonry, that the ground was occupied by public 
or private buildings. The facility with which cellars 
and magazines can be excavated in the soft limestone, 
of which the hills are composed, would naturally be 
taken advantage of, for increasing the accommoda- 
tion of the private dwellings, and in two instances, as 
I shall afterwards have occasion to mention, I found 
unmistakable evidence of this. Where the ravine 
widens, to the right above the road, are remains sup- 
posed to mark the site of the temple of Juno, an 
inscription relating to the priestesses of the goddess 
having been found here by Beechey; but the little 
that remains of the temple presents nothing of pecu- 
liar interest, a remark which, unfortunately, with few 
exceptions, is applicable to almost all the ruins 
found within the circuit of the city. Above this, on 
the summit of the western hill, is the corner of a 
building, which, seen from below, looks like a tower, 



Chap. III. BAS-RELIEFS.— INSCRIPTION. 45 

and here the substructures are very large, covering a 
great portion of the plateau. All this part has been 
extensively excavated in certain directions, by order of 
the Grand Vizier, who presented the spoil to France. 
Some small statues in the best style of Greek art, I am 
told, were found here, but I speak only on hearsay. 
There still remains a good cubical altar of white 
marble, which the Arab labourers were obliged to 
abandon on account of its weight; it having broken 
down the rude carriage which they had constructed 
for its removal. On the four sides are bas-reliefs, 
each representing a figure standing in a quadriga ; 
and when I first saw it there was on one side a votive 
inscription, which it was difficult to decipher ; unfor- 
tunately I deferred copying it at the time, and on my 
return, some days afterwards, I found that it had been 
defaced by the Arabs. They had probably seen me 
stopping before and examining the inscription, which 
was, I fear, with them, reason sufficient for its de- 
struction. 

Proceeding up the street we reach the line of a large 
building, marked by many fallen columns, and then 
we come to the well-defined outline of a large theatre, 
once adorned with a colonnade of marble ; among the 
debris of which are many fragments of red and gray 
granite, and some mutilated statues, once the deco- 
rations of its proscenium. A flight of steps leads to 



46 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. III. 

the orchestra from the rising ground above. Further 
on is a large building also, with many fallen columns, 
having in its north-west extremity an apsis of small 
dimensions. It seems to have been a basilica, as its 
architecture is too good to suppose that it was a Chris- 
tian church. On the left nothing but scattered form- 
less heaps of stone are to be seen, until after passing 
this building, when we reach a lofty tower, of which 
one comer remains; extensive ruins also attract 
attention on account of the numerous arches, not of 
the best construction, which still show their curves 
above the encumbered ground. An apse, having the 
same direction as that in the other building, is still 
standing, and many marble columns strew the ground. 
This is marked in Beechey's plan as a church, a con- 
jecture which the debased style of architecture, as 
well as the general plan, fully justifies, and which is, 
perhaps, confirmed by a stone which I turned up among 
the ruins, on which a Greek cross is coarsely carved. 
On either side are smaller heaps of ruins, and thence 
a grass-covered plain, almost unmarked by any build- 
ing, but once, perhaps, covered with private dwell- 
ings, reaches to the city walls. Just beyond there is 
a piece of ground covered with what seems to be grave- 
stones, some marked with the cross, and others with 
the double triangle, commonly called Solomon's Seal. 
This may be an old Jewish and Christian burial 



Chap. III. TERRACES. — TEMPLE OF JESCULAPIUS. 47 

ground, and the tradition of the Arabs points it out 
as the place where the last battle was fought between 
the Christian inhabitants and the Moslem invaders. 

On riding up the eastern hill from the fountain, one 
finds it formed of a series of terraces, partly natural 
and partly artificial, with a broad plateau overlooking 
the street of Battus on the summit. On one of these 
terraces, the form of the ground and the beautiful 
site induced me at first to suppose some ruins I found 
to be those of a theatre ; but the ground in these 
hills so often takes a semicircular form, and the re- 
mains of masonry were so few, that, on further exa- 
mination of the spot, I was inclined to believe 
that the appearance was accidental. A winding road 
led from the plateau to the agora, and steps cut 
in the rock afforded a shorter cut for pedestrians. In 
the sides of the terraces are many excavations, which, 
judging from the disposition of the interiors, must 
have formed parts of private houses, and some of them, 
if cleared out, would form commodious enough ad- 
juncts to au encampment. On the summit are the 
remains of several buildings, one with five arches still 
appearing above the ground, and there are others of 
not inconsiderable size. Further to the east are seve- 
ral hillocks, two of them covered with the ruins of 
temples; one of them, called by the Arabs Kasr' Shark- 
yeh, is supposed by Barthe to be the temple of iEscu- 



50 WANDERINGS IX NORTH AFRICA. Chap. III. 

for some space, then, turning towards the north, it 
follows the edge of the western valley (Wady Bil 
Ghadir) up to a point where the perpendicular rocks 
render no artificial defence necessary, and here it 
terminates in a lofty tower. Beyond it I remarked 
two small reservoirs ; a "building of a large size, of 
the Roman epoch, having a central chamher termi- 
nated in an apsis ; and near this another, evidently a 
stronghold of Byzantine, if not Arab, times. Many 
other smaller ruins lie beyond the walls on this 
side; among them a small temple, with fallen Ionic 
columns. 

Without riding on to the tall tower which overhangs 
the steep rock of the "Wady, we turn to the right, 
entering the strongly-fortified gate on the old Barca 
road. After passing the indications of many small 
buildings, fragments of marble and substructions, the 
most extensive ruin remaining in Cyrene presents 
itself. This is an immense quadrangle, whose north- 
west side is broken to inclose a small and very perfect 
theatre, which still shows three of the five vaulted 
entrances which gave admittance to its interior. The 
larger area, whose entrance gate is still entire, is sup- 
posed to have been a forum of the Ptolemaic or Boman 
time. Excavations have laid bare a number of small 
chambers and a reservoir, along the eastern side, be- 
sides a large building in the centre. No inscription 



Chap. III. GYRENE'S HISTORY UNKNOWN. 51 

is at present visible ; but there remains enough of the 
old decorations to show that the interior and the 
exterior, at least on the south-east, were decorated 
with colonnades. Continuing down-hill, to re-enter 
the street of Battus, we find, near the temple of Juno, 
another large monument, having many columns, with 
marble capitals ; this was probably a palace. On the 
exterior of the north-east side are the remains of a 
series of vaulted chambers, ingeniously conjectured to 
have been coach-houses — a necessary convenience in 
the land of chariots. 

There are very many small buildings to be traced 
on the sites I have endeavoured to describe, but they 
are in general only quadrangular foundations, in great 
part overgrown with grass; and in our ignorance of 
those details of Cyrenean life or history, which lend an 
interest to every spot in Athens and Eome, it would be 
tedious and, in truth, impossible to particularise them. 
The muse of history has not deigned to notice the 
vicissitudes of her prosperous commerce, and scarcely 
mentions the bloody factions of her pampered citizens. 
None of the great scenes which influence the world's 
destiny were acted within her walls. Her sons were 
nurtured in wealth and luxury, and though among 
them were numbered physicians, philosophers, gram- 
marians, and arithmeticians, history records not that 
other arts than those of the fancy — the charioteers, 

D 2 



52 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. III. 

and the pugilists — were cultivated with eminent suc- 
cess. The medals often found in its soil are both 
rare and beautiful ; but the marbles are not of first-rate 
merit. Many valuable inscriptions are probably buried 
beneath its surface ; but it would require both large 
funds and much time to attempt, with fair prospect of 
success, an investigation of its ruins. 

I believe that this account of the present condition 
of Cyrene, though vague, conveys a not unfaithful 
idea of its state. The destruction is, in fact, so com- 
plete, and the masses overthrown so gigantic, that one 
can hardly ascribe the present havoc to the hand of 
man, or the wasting decay of ages. Though there are 
now no appearances of volcanic action, we find men- 
tion of earthquakes in Synesius; and the whole of the 
sea-coast, as seen at Benghazi and Apollonia, has 
subsided — an evidence, at least, of the presence of 
volcanic forces ; and by this agency alone does it 
seem possible that such utter destruction could have 
been caused. The greater devourer of the cities of 
antiquity, a modern town rising in the vicinity, has 
not here aided the destroyer ; for the seventh century 
is the very latest date that can be ascribed to any 
single building in a very wide circuit ; and the nature 
of the country, cut up by ravines, and for ages desti- 
tute of roads, renders the transport of heavy blocks of 
jstone impossible. If its present destruction be due to 



Chap. III. COMPLETE DESTRUCTION OF CYRENE. 53 

the nomad tribes (of whose attacks Synesius speaks), 
who feared that Oyrene might again become a flourish- 
ing city, and their mistress, we cannot, after admiring 
the laborious energy of her builders, but wonder at 
the persevering fury of her destroyers. 

The remains of sculpture, as I have indicated, 
though not few, are all of a late age, and none in the 
best style of art ; I except the three dancing figures, a 
bas-relief on limestone, near the fountain, now, alas ! 
sadly mutilated. They are even now worthy a place 
in a museum, as they are of great artistic interest, 
showing the passage from the archaic style of the 
Egina marbles to the more graceful execution of the 
classic school. I think I recognised, near the theatre 
in the street of Battus, the torso of a statue designed 
in Pacho's work, and by him called a Caesar, but it 
has suffered much from mutilation, and can never 
have possessed the merit he ascribes to it. Very many 
headless statues are scattered about, which would be 
beautiful decorations for a garden, but are all unworthy 
of a museum. 

The rock which forms the hills, and of which the 
town is built, is a yellowish limestone, filled with fossil 
shells, for the most part bivalves, and of very unequal 
compactness. By exposure to the weather it acquires 
a gray tone, and frequently becomes honey-combed. 
In some places the marks of the chisel in the stones 



54 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. III. 

are as sharp as the day they were cut — in others, the 
air and rain have rounded off their edges ; and one 
sees walls still standing which look as if built of flat- 
tened eggs, showing large interstices between the now 
rounded stones. 

To sum up in a few words, the traveller finds enough 
to convey the general impression of the past splendour 
of a luxurious city, but little to satisfy a refined taste, 
and nothing of which it can be said, if we except the 
great reservoir, " This is indeed magnificent ! " In 
a commercial community, containing philosophers and 
physicians, the theatre and the turf may be cultivated 
as relaxations from the money- getting toils of the 
desk, but, as far as I remember, excepting aristocratic 
Venice, history furnishes no example of such a people 
having attained more than an initiative excellence in 
the fine arts. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Interview with the Bey. — Arab Feast.— The Bey's Hospitality. 

August 10. — A few days after arriving in Grennah, 
haying obtained a general idea of the ruins, and 
made such arrangements as were likely to conduce to 
a comfortable stay, I went to pay my respects to 
Bekir Bey, as the Turks call Bu Bekr Hadud, the 
Governor of the Arabs in this district. I had been 
introduced to him by the Kaimahan in Benghazi, who, 
besides a verbal recommendation, had furnished me 
with letters to him. His residence is a castle, which I 
found him still engaged in building, at Caicab, a place 
about four hours distant from Grennah, lying between 
the two roads to Derna ; and from here, with the fifty 
soldiers who are at his orders, he manages to keep the 
country in subjection, and his enemies — who are 
many — say, to rob it into the bargain. His family 



56 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. IV. 

has -long been one of the most powerful in the country; 
and he is sheikh of the Berasa, a tribe counting ten 
clans. The sheikhs of the other clans are subordinate 
to him ; and by intrigue or violence, each employed at 
the right time, he has made himself really the inde- 
pendent governor of the country, which he rules with 
an iron hand, under such protection as his guards 
afford him, amidst clans of his own tribe who have 
sworn his death. His life has been one of strange 
vicissitudes ; at one time — under the last native sove- 
reign, Youssouf Pacha, whom the Porte, with the 
help of the English Consul General, so cleverly de- 
throned, or rather, I should say ; who so stupidly 
allowed himself to be smuggled out of his country — 
he was fourteen months a prisoner in irons in Tripoli. 
His language is now that of the most abject submis- 
sion, but he carries things his own way notwithstand- 
ing. He pays to the Porte a yearly sum of 48,000 
dollars, extracting from the Arabs nearly twice as 
much ; the greater part is destined to swell his own 
money-bags, the rest being used, according to the 
approved receipt in this country, to anoint the eyes 
of his superiors in Benghazi and Tripoli. In person 
he is strongly built, but not tall, having the finest 
chest and arm I ever beheld; but his features are 
coarse, and his eye twinkles with indescribable cun- 
ning. 



Chap. IV. INTERVIEW WITH THE BEY. 57 

I arrived about eleven o'clock, and found the Bey- 
seated in his divan, and surrounded by at least forty- 
persons, most of whom were squatted on the floor ; he 
was seated in the corner, on a raised board, not unlike 
a tailor's, which ran about twelve feet along one side of 
the room. When I entered, the assembly was dis- 
missed ; and I seated myself beside him, having on my 
other hand three sheikhs of his tribe, one of whom, his 
brother, Mansour, is a still more ferocious, though less 
cunning, politician than himself. He it is who can 
eat an entire sheep at a sitting — a tale which I believe 
after seeing his performance at an extra meal which 
was prepared for me, when he excused himself for 
eating so little, on the score of bad health. In ad- 
dition to these three, there remained also the Deftudar, 
or Secretary-Accountant, whose functions also included 
waiting at table. His place was on a straw sofa, on 
which were collected all the implements of his calling: 
a small box, a ream of paper, a pair of scissors for 
cutting his despatches or orders into proper form, a 
board for counting money, and a waist-inkstand ; open 
letters with their answers were scattered round him, 
in what seemed inextricable confusion. After all the 
usual inquiries after health and temper, and when 
coffee and lemonade had been served, the Bey resumed 
his business, while several of the former assembly re- 
turned, some to have their complaints discussed, others 

D 3 



58 WANDERINGS IX NORTH AFRICA. Chap. IV. 

to get a nearer view of the stranger. He, knowing 
that the Bedawin do not smoke, regarding this habit 
as a dirty trick (they only chew tobacco, mixed with 
nitre), had taken the precaution of carrying his pipe 
with him, to keep himself in countenance during the 
long pauses of an Arab visit. This and Mohammed's 
exaggerated stories of him — how he ate and drank, 
and above all, how he washed in a tub, and slept on a 
bed — which were circulated in an undertone, made the 
company vote him no better than a Turk, a hateful, 
but highly respected character. The Bey from time to 
time turned round to bawl out some phrases of exagge- 
rated compliment, in a voice like that of one of his 
camels, and then would continue to investigate the 
case before him, till, getting animated, he would utter 
a dozen f< Wallahis " in a breath, throwing his arms 
about in a manner that might well alarm his neigh- 
bour ; then he would pull his beard two or three times, 
and, finally, would finish the discussion by applying 
the interior of his thumb-nail to that of his upper 
teeth, making a slight cracking noise, which meant 
that nothing more was to be got out of him. But it 
is not to be supposed that the audience sat listening, 
in respectful silence, to this torrent of words : the sub- 
jects were as energetic as their ruler, and he who lis- 
tened to the tones, or beheld the gestures which accom- 
panied them, would think that they must soon come to 



Chap. IV. ARAB FEAST. 59 

blows. When I first met Bu Bekr in Benghazi, I was 
astonished at the loud, rough tone in which he spoke ; 
but after seeing a little more of the Bedawin (who all 
speak as if from the mountain-tops), and assisting at a 
council at Caicah, it was easy to account for it. 
Indeed, the good man could not whisper : he tried to 
do so, putting his arms round a servant's neck, and 
placing his lips close to his ear, when he ordered a 
luncheon, dinner, or whatever it must be called, to be 
prepared for me. I had arrived too late for their 
dinner; and, after much whispering in a loud tone, 
and the interchange of one or two notes with his 
Secretary (perhaps to show me that there is one Bey 
who can write), he ordered another dinner for me. I 
was not supposed to hear or understand anything of 
his hospitable intentions ; and, after an hour and 
a half of fatiguing inaction, in the midst of this Babel- 
like hubbub, I rose to take my leave. This he would 
not allow, and seizing a shoulder with one iron hand, 
and a leg with the other, he pulled me back to my 
place. . I thus had to sit, making what little con- 
versation my confined vocabulary would admit of, for 
four hours longer, whilst the banquet was being pre- 
pared. When the carpet was at last spread, and the 
tray placed upon it, I confess I was disappointed, 
• though little inclined to eat, to find that the ladies of 
the harem had not profited by this long interval to 



60 



WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. IV. 



furnish some delicate cates. There was soup — a sort 
of greenish porridge, filled with rice and onions ; then 
came two dishes of stewed mutton, with vegetables ; 
this was followed by two dishes of stewed mutton, with 
potatoes ; and, finally, a huge wooden bowl of rice, 
some thirty inches in diameter, crowned with an entire 
roasted lamb. Plates of water-melon, from Benghazi, 
completed the feast. I have described the dinner, all 
fear of criticism notwithstanding, as it was meant to 
be a splendid feed, and the host is the wealthiest man 
in the country. The chief fault I found with it was 
the long time it detained me in Caicab, thereby occa- 
sioning me two hours' ride in the dark. The Bey, 
his brother, and Mohammed (whose last wife, by the 
way, was a divorcee of Bu Bekr's), did honour to the 
entertainment; the two former picking out, and 
putting beneath my fingers, the delicate morsels ; 
and I must do them the justice to say, that, with true 
politeness, not an effort was made to make me eat 
more largely than I was inclined to do. The appetite 
which comes in eating aided me to make a most sub- 
stantial luncheon; but, beside the others, I was like a 
canary-bird amongst ostriches. Mohammed, I heard, 
could eat no supper; he was ill and useless all the 
next day. 

This rough, but abundant hospitality, not unbefitting 
the traditional idea of an Arab sheikh, is exercised on 



Chap. IV. THE BEY'S HOSPITALITY. 61 

a most liberal scale by Bu Bekr; and the enormous 
drain it must be on his fortune may, possibly, justify 
him in his own eyes for the unscrupulous means by 
which he augments it. At some seasons, the expenses 
of his court can be little short of 20/. a day ; and to 
meet this, the Turkish Government allows him 11/. a 
month. An acquaintance, who spent some evenings 
with him this summer, told me that he had counted 
378 rations for horses, given out in one evening for 
the guests; while 86 sheep had been slaughtered, to 
supply their personal wants. Perhaps he is by nature 
thus liberal, and only from education succumbs to 
the Arab fondness for the clinging metal. 



CHAPTEK V. 



Meditations at Sunrise. — Violation of the Tombs. — Description of 
the Tombs. — Allegorical Figures. — Splendid Tomb. — Curious 
Tombs, — Lively Yale. — "[Inartistic Statues. 

August 23. — I have described, as I can, the an- 
cient city ; hut the Necropolis, which yet remains to he 
visited, is, in fact, still, as in old times, the glory of 
Cyrene. Among its thousands of monuments, many 
retain traces of their ancient magnificence, and some 
still present great beauties of detail. My descriptions, 
such as they are here given, were written on the spot, 
after repeated visits; and this morning, in no unfit- 
ting mood, I began my task. The growling camels 
round my tent, the bleating sheep at the fountain above, 
roused me earlier than usual ; and I prepared to set 
out upon my round, while the cool air invited to exer- 
tion, and the first rays of the sun gilded the summits 



Chap. V. MEDITATIONS AT SUNRISE. 63 

of the hills. To most men such bright mornings are 
exhilarating; and the pursuit of the red-legged par- 
tridge, with dog and gun, would seem more suitable to 
the hour, than a walk among the tombs. But to me 
they are associated with recollections too painfully in 
unison with my present task. Twice at this season 
the sun has shone for me on scenes of deepest afflic- 
tion. By its morning light, I have received those 
heart- wounds which never heal — the loss of the well- 
loved parents, whose affection no love can replace ; of 
the friend of youthful days, which can never return. 
Such a morning was it, this day twelve years ago, 
when thou, O Marcellus, wert snatched from us, in 
the springtide of youth, in the force of thy strength, 
and talent, and manly beauty. After that long, weary 
night, during which I had sat watching alone, by the 
dim lamp, each unconscious movement, when all hope 
was gone, and each long-drawn gasp, sent a fresh pang 
from thy heart to mine, the morning light stole 
through the ill- closed shutters; and hoping without 
hope, I opened the window to admit fresh air to thy 
labouring chest. The gay sun-rays burst in upon the 
chamber of death, the swift waters of the Ehine 
danced by, refulgent in the morning splendour, and 
unsympathising nature seemed to awaken to gladness, 
whilst the tenderest ties that friendship ever formed 
were immaturely rent asunder. Long years have 



C4 



WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. Y. 



passed since that sad morning ; yet have I not learned 
to forget, or ceased to mourn thee. No companion 
thou of the debauch; the friendship which survives 
the long parting was not formed in the haunts of 
dissipation. If thy wit flashed bright at the festal 
board — in the intimacy of the chamber, thy tender 
feeling elevated, as thy learning and taste instructed. 
Cut off in earliest youth — cruel favour of the gods ! — 
a few friends alone knew thy worth ; one, at least, still 
mourns, and never has replaced thee in his heart. In 
the wilderness of the great Babylon each turn recalls 
thee ; and here, in the city of countless tombs, thy 
image rises to my memory, and accompanies my 
pilgrimage. 

Some feelings of melancholy must be awakened in 
every visitor, as he follows those long lines of violated 
sepulchres, ranged along the sides of the hills, ob- 
truding far into the plain below, and stretching in every 
direction across the table-land to the south. The 
simple sarcophagus and proud mausoleum now alike 
gape tenantless ; perpetuating neither the affection of 
the survivors nor the merits of the dead, they are mute 
as to their history, their fate, and almost their names. 
Barbarian hands have disturbed the relics, and rifled 
the treasures which they once contained ; the existence 
of such treasures must have been the incentive to, and 
can alone account for, the universal violation of the 



Chap. V. VIOLATION OF THE TOMBS. 65 

tombs — hatred, if profitless as well as toilsome, is 
seldom thus unrelenting. 

The influence of the vicinity, and, at one time, the 
domination of Egypt, seems to have inspired the 
Oyreneans with the same anxious reverence for the 
dead which distinguished their neighbours ; and they 
seem early to have abandoned the habit of increma- 
tion, though it is not evident that they adopted that 
of embalming. Few of the monuments are fitted for 
the reception of urns, and the very few bones which 
are sometimes met with, bear no marks of burning. 

The northern face of the eastern hill seems to have 
been the first place used for sepulture ; and, judging 
from the style, I should think that some monuments, 
about half a mile from the fountain, on the road to 
Apollonia, are among the earliest. They are large 
sepulchres, with facades cut in the solid rock, with 
porticoes, in a very early Greek, almost Egyptian, 
style. I am inclined to think that the sepulchres, 
which are entirely excavated, without any adjuncts of 
masonry, are of two epochs, the earliest and latest : 
the former, though generally rude, impressive in their 
monolithic vastness ; the latter, in their meretriciously 
minute though graceful decorations, reminding me 
forcibly of Pompeii. Some of these one finds, in 
which the smoothed rock is scored with lines, to imi- 
tate masonry, like the stuccoed houses of Belgravia. 



66 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. Y. 

To an intermediate period — that of the greatest pros- 
perity — I ascrihe the cave-tombs, faced with masonry, 
and the circular and temple- shaped monuments which 
are so frequent ; while the plain sarcophagus, rising 
from the rock on which it was hewn, may belong to 
any epoch. The road to Apollonia ran along the side 
of the hill, at about half its elevation ; and, above and 
below, the tombs are built in long lines, tier above tier, 
forming, in some places, as many as twelve terraces, 
connected together by flights of steps. 

The disposition in each form of tomb varies but 
little. The sarcophagus contained, in general, room 
for one occupant ; though I found an instance where 
two bodies had been deposited in the same excavation, 
one above the other, with a stone to separate them. 
The cave- sepulchres have, in general, a forecourt, ex- 
cavated in the hill, presenting internally a low cham- 
ber, containing four or six plain sarcophagi, cut in the 
sides, and as many, or even a greater number, of 
similar cavities sunk in the floor. There are some 
which form a long, narrow gallery, on which open 
lateral chambers, each capable of containing two sar- 
cophagi in length, and two or three tiers, one above 
the other. The interiors are, in general, left quite 
rough, without remaining marks of decoration : a few 
have been plastered and painted, and others present 
beautiful finishing of the stone- work inside. Those 



Chap. V. DESCRIPTION OF THE TOMBS. 67 

hewn in the rock, and adorned with a facade of ma- 
sonry, were, in their original state, undoubtedly the 
most magnificent, as show r n by the frequent remains of 
columns and statues, but they are now the least inte- 
resting. The facade has, in general, fallen away, 
leaving the sepulchre, with its bare wall and shapeless 
entrance, the ghastly spectacle of a fleshless skull. In 
only one case did I find such a facade still entire ; it 
has separated from the rock, and leans slightly forward, 
ready to fall in the first violent rains. It seemed to 
me the better worth remarking, as it explains the many 
smooth surfaces the rock presents, as well as the 
decoration applied to the fountain. 

Among the most interesting tombs in the northern 
Necropolis are three, standing together, at a place 
where the road, following the outline of the hill, makes 
a deep bend. They are monolithic, and in one, the 
Doric columns, which support the excavated porticoes in 
front of the cave, are of abnormal proportions. Beneath 
them, descending the abrupt hill, on the third or fourth 
tier — it is difficult to say which, the tombs, principally 
sarcophagi, being so closely grouped — is a sepulchre 
without any external ornament, but exhibiting on its 
interior walls the only frescoes of any merit I have 
found. On the right hand, and on either side of the 
doorway, the paintings are well preserved; those on the 
other two sides are, excepting two groups, almost obli- 



68 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. V. 

terated by the peeling off of the plaster in some 
places, in others by a hard, stalactitic crust which has 
formed on them. The inscriptions scribbled over the 
ground, partly with the brush, partly scratched with a 
point, have bestowed a certain interest on these paint- 
ings, in which Pacho, who has not given quite a correct 
delineation of the paintings, thought he had discovered 
indications of Judaism. The inscriptions, scarcely 
legible, seem to consist of the names of visitors, and 
to the unlearned offer no interest. The whole series 
evidently refer to the games of the ancients ; chariot- 
races, gladiators, wrestlers, and pugilists, occupying 
the two sides which are damaged. There are two 
wrestlers, with a third figure, who seems to be taking a 
flying leap over their heads, but who may be intended 
to be lying on the ground overcome, while the judge, 
with the prize-cup, or, perhaps, the oil for anointing, 
looks on in the corner. To the right are two figures, 
one of whom seems to be inviting the first, a youth, to 
enter a doorway to which he points ; which I con- 
jecture to be the introduction of a youth to the study 
of rhetoric or poetry. It is here the inscriptions begin. 
The action of the next two figures is indistinguishable. 
We next see a figure in long drapery, crowned with ivy 
or vine-leaves, his right hand extended, in his left a 
lyre. An orator, or poet, with a roll in his hand, fol- 
lows next ; and, after him, the same draped figure, now 



Chap. V. ALLEGOEICAL FIGUEES. 69 

playing on the lyre. The next group is, unfortunately, 
much damaged, as its composition is remarkable. It 
contains eight figures, all crowned with ivy ; the 
fourth blowing the double horn; before them goes a 
nude figure, bearing a square chest. Here there is a 
figure now headless, and again the musician playing 
on the lyre, surrounded by seven persons. A male 
figure, in a tragic masque, appears to be declaiming 
to a female also masqued, who is surrounded by 
seven other females, crowned with garlands. I could 
discover in these paintings no trace of Jewish 
origin ; two of the figures still remaining, which 
Pacho has represented wearing mitres, are certainly 
tragic masques; the lofty hair on the foreheads of 
which may have deceived him in the obscurity. 
Though roughly executed, they are drawn with great 
breadth and freedom ; in style they much resemble 
many of the Pompeian frescoes, to which time, or 
rather later, they may be assigned. On either side of 
the door, are an animal-fight and a hunt. On one, a 
bull attacked by a lion, while a tiger is preparing to 
spring upon his neck ; above are stags, a gazelle, dogs, 
and a chacal. Spears are flying all about the picture. 
On the other side is a column supporting a vase, a 
man launching a greyhound, almost in the position of 
Gibson s hunter, a stag, two hares, and some more 
dogs. 



70 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. Y. 

Further on in the same range, at a place where the 
old road, with the deep -worn ruts of the chariot wheels, 
is still visible, is a very large collection of sepulchral 
chambers, called by the Arabs Kenissich, or the 
Church. There are remains of a large forecourt of 
masonry, of which only parts of the sides are still 
standing; but though very spacious, exceeding in 
extent any other excavation in Cyrene, it contains 
neither inscriptions nor emblems. Nothing in it indi- 
cates that it was ever used either for the religious rites 
or the burial of Christians, as from its name some 
travellers have supposed. It must be remembered 
that names such as this have no origin in traditions of 
the country, as its present inhabitants ascribe all that 
they see to the Christians (the Roum) ; they have 
no idea that any race of men occupied the country 
before them. To this is to be ascribed their excessive 
jealousy of antiquarian travellers, whom they believe 
to come furnished with information which will enable 
them to remove the treasures left by their ancestors, 
according to Arab belief, in secret places. I should 
conjecture that this vast series of chambers must have 
been appropriated to some civic or religious corpora- 
tion, as its extent is far too great to have been intended 
for a single family. 

This line of sepulchres, with its terrace, connected 
by flights of steps, extends in unbroken succession for 



Chap. V. SPLENDID TOMB. 71 

about a mile and a half, till it reaches a beautifully- 
wooded hill, where the tombs become rarer. Amongst 
the immense heaps of stones fallen from the facades 
of the larger, are often seen fragments of marble, and 
excavations have uncovered many portrait- statues in 
every part of the Necropolis. 

Turning back to the old theatre, there is 'found 
immediately beneath it the most splendid tomb which 
the ruins of Cyrene present, both from its gigantic 
dimensions and the excellent style of its architecture. 
It is entirely excavated, without any additions of 
masonry, presenting a large portico, supported by five 
square pillars, which forms a stately entrance to a very 
large chamber, succeeded by a smaller one. The 
centre pillars, with the rock which they supported, 
have fallen, and lie in one huge mass in front of the 
cave. It is now the habitation of a Bedawy, who one 
day very pressingly invited me to enter, to see his 
marble boxes, the fragments of two very elegantly- 
carved sarcophagi. Beneath this are the arches 
which I have already mentioned as belonging to a 
temple ; and in the face of the hill, still further down, 
are some very large tombs, now devoid of all appear- 
ance of decoration. 

In whatever direction one leaves the city, the tombs 
extend in long lines along the principal roads, they 
are found cut in the rocks of the most secluded valley, 



72 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. Y. 

or built in groups on the summit of rising grounds. 
Of these the most interesting, beside the northern 
Necropolis, are those which flank the old road leading 
to Baria, and the long terraces on the western side of 
the Wady Bil Ghadir. I did not see the former till 
after I had been some time in Grennah, other objects 
having engaged all my attention; but, even when 
accustomed to the variety and vastness of its northern 
Necropolis, this struck me with astonishment. It was 
a lovely summer evening when I first came upon this 
long street of tombs, which is called by the Arabs the 
Market-place (El-suk), and passed for such with one 
of the earliest European travellers in this country — 
Lemaire. The long, deep shadows, with the glowing 
yellow of the sinking sun, concealed the ravages of 
time, and gave to the scene an air of solemn mystery 
which impressed the imagination and the eye. At 
every step some picturesque group of sarcophagi, or 
some large mausoleum, arrested the attention, and the 
sun had long set before I turned homewards. I often 
revisited this scene, and each time with renewed enjoy- 
ment. To reach it, one leaves the city by the gate 
near to what is supposed to have been the market- 
place of later times, when the traces of the old road 
soon show themselves. It is flanked on the left by a 
rock, artificially smoothed, and covered in a long row 
with niches square or oblong, and about one-third of 



Chap. V. PECULIAK TOMBS. 73 

their length in depth. Some have a square hole at 
the bottom, about three inches deep, which, though 
sometimes in the centre, is more often on one side. Such 
niches I have met with in other places, but here they 
are more numerous, and in a continuous line for some 
distance, interrupted once or twice by the door of a 
sepulchre. Their object it is difficult to determine; 
they could not have contained urns, for they are too 
small, as well as too exposed, being not more than 
three feet above the level of the road. They might 
have been regarded as receptacles for exvotos, had 
they been placed at a greater height. In this line of 
tombs are some remarkable structures, peculiar, I be- 
lieve, to the Cyrenaica — circles of five or six feet high, 
surrounding a sarcophagus of the usual form. Most 
of them are in a very dilapidated condition, but there 
is one still nearly entire. It is formed of three layers 
of good masonry, making a square platform, on which 
the sarcophagus is placed, with a circle inscribed in 
the square of the base, formed by a ring of stones 
placed endwise in juxtaposition, no cement remaining 
between them ; their dimensions are about five feet by 
three. 

At the end of this street of tombs, turning to the 
left, and riding between low hills, where excavations 
and remains of buildings are rare, one comes to a 
quarter of the Necropolis unique in its ensemble, but 

E 



74 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. Y. 

not in its individual parts. I have already mentioned 
the sarcophagi hewn out from the solid rock, which 
are found so frequently mixed with tombs of other 
forms; here they occur in large groups, rising one 
above the other, on the tops of the low hills out of 
which they are cut. The four sides of some of these 
sarcophagi stand clear of the rock, which is levelled 
all round ; in others, only three sides or two are thus 
freed ; many are in connected groups, three or four in 
a line, with no other external separation than a small 
space between their lids, and a narrow watercourse, 
to drain off the rains falling from their sloping 
roofs. 

Continuing to make a wide circuit of the city, one 
comes upon the ruins of two forts, in one of which is 
a large cistern ; thence, keeping to the left, the monu- 
ments are more scattered, but they assume larger pro- 
portions, and date, probably, from the times of the 
greatest prosperity. Some are circular towers on a 
square base, like the tomb of Cecilia Metella, near 
Koine; others have the form of a double cube, with 
roofs sloping at the sides, and terminated at the ends 
with triangular frontons. A partition, running the 
length of the building, generally separates these into 
two chambers, having a further division in height, so 
as to form two stories. The greater number of tombs 
in this direction present vestiges of former enrichment 



Chap. V. LOYELY YALE. 75 

with statues or marble, and their sides are invariably 
decorated "with flat pilasters. Most of these monu- 
ments are erected over excavated caves, which gives 
the idea of their being connected ; the monument may 
have been added to the original cave-tomb, or the 
former destined for the master, and the latter for his 
slaves or freedmen. No part of the ruins of Cyrene 
offers so good a chance of profitable excavations as the 
tombs in this direction, but I am not sanguine in the 
hopes of the discovery of any objects in the highest 
style of art. Not a trace of an inscription is to be 
found on any of these monuments. 

In the western valley, Wady Bil Ghadir, some of 
the finest tombs are found, on the side of the hill 
opposite to that one on which the older part of the 
town lay. This part is very attractive by its bold and 
picturesque scenery. Here is a deep ravine, forming an 
impregnable defence to this side of the town, the rocks 
on either hand towering almost perpendicularly above 
the narrow bed of the streamlet formed by its three 
fountains. Towards the higher point on one side is 
a small grove of most venerable cypresses (the re- 
mains, perhaps, of that planted by Battus), which 
crown the rock, and overshadow the tombs on the 
terraces below. The fig-tree, the olive, and the 
myrtle (here a tree twenty feet high), surround the 
tombs with luxuriant thickets, out of which streamlets 

E 2 



76 WAKDEEINGS IN NOETH AFEICA. Chap. V. 

issue, whose course far beneath is marked by thick 
bushes of oleanders crowned with their rosy flowers, 
and brambles covered at the same time with their 
pale blossoms, and with ripening fruit. Some of the 
tombs in this valley are the most elegant in their 
proportions, and the most carefully executed of any I 
have met with in this country; two or three still 
exhibit the polychromatic decoration of their archi- 
tecture, and in a few are inscriptions, giving, in- 
deed, only the names of the tenants without either 
title or date; but even these are interesting, when 
among them one finds a Jason, an Aristotle, and a 
Themistocles. The interesting pictures in fresco, re- 
presenting a black female slave, which decorated the 
exterior of a tomb high up in one of the branches of 
this ravine, have been removed by M. Bourville, lately 
consular agent for France in Benghazi, and I hope 
that the intrinsic merit of the paintings, of which the 
engravings certainly make it difficult to judge, is such 
that their removal may add to our knowledge of an- 
cient art. If not superior to those in the tomb I have 
described in the Northern Necropolis, their acquisi- 
tion will add little to the treasures of the Louvre; 
their absence here is a disappointment to the lover 
of art. Two of the fountains show the remains of 
ancient sanctuaries near them, and inscriptions have 
been found connecting their erection with the name of 



Chap. Y. UN AUTISTIC STATUES. 77 

a pious matron. Many statues have been dug up on 
the sides of the hill, the best of which have been 
removed by their discoverers; those that remain ex- 
hibit the worst taste in design, and the clumsiest 
execution ; their style is that of the statues pro- 
duced in the masons' yards at Leghorn, and intended, 
I believe, by the artists and the purchasers, whoever 
they may be, as ornaments for gardens. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Charming Scenery. — Arab Summer Dwellings. — Kuins of Apollonia. 
— Ancient Granaries. — Chapels over Saints' Tombs. — Abd-el- 
Kader's Warriors. — Temple of Bacchus. 

The Wady Bil Ghadir, the Valley of Verdure, was 
one of the many "beautiful ravines in this country 
which particularly attracted my admiration; it was 
one of my favourite haunts; and often did I climb 
its sides — occasionally at the risk of my neck — or 
saunter more safely in the perpetual shade of its 
stream-course. In the neighbourhood of Grennah, the 
hills abound with beautiful scenes, and these I gra- 
dually discovered in my rides ; some of them exceeded 
in richness of vegetation, and equalled in grandeur, 
anything that is to be found in the Appenines. 
About a mile from the town on the south, one comes 
upon extensive remains of a fortress situated on the 
edge of one of these ravines, the Wady Leboaitha, 
which runs nearly due east ; the valley is filled with 



Chap. VI. CHARMING SCENERY. 79 

tombs, and frequented by countless flights of wood- 
pigeons. Following the ravine, and turning to the 
left, we enter the Wady Shelaleh, which presents a 
scene beyond my powers of description. The olive is 
here contrasted with the fig, the tall cypress and the 
dark juniper with the arbutus and myrtle, and the 
pleasant breeze, which always blows through the valley, 
is laden with balmy perfumes. In the midst of this 
wonderful richness of nature appear the gray rocks, 
hollowed into large and inaccessible caverns, or gently 
receding in wooded slopes, and sometimes rising per- 
pendicularly, and meeting so as to leave but a narrow 
passage between them. 

Between the range of hills on which Cyrene was 
built, and the rising ground which so abruptly de- 
scends to the sea-shore, the broad plain, which from 
above seems a flat expanse, is found to be deeply in- 
dented with many wood-clad hollows. On their bor- 
ders, ruined buildings or crumbling tombs contrast 
with the wooden hut of the present occupant of the 
soil — the monumental industry of fallen civilisation 
with the slothful hut of victorious barbarism. 

August 29. — It was a bright cool morning when I 
started to visit Marsa Souya, the o]d ApoHonia. The 
road follows the line of the cemetery until it reaches 
the hill whose secular cypresses I have so often ad- 
mired ; hence it descends into the plain, taking nearly 



80 WAKDEBHsTGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. VI. 

a north-east direction. At an hour from Grennah I 
came upon excavations which must have formed part 
of the dependencies of a country-house. In a good- 
sized cave, into which one descends "by three steps, is 
seen a large circular basin hollowed in the rock, four 
feet in diameter, and standing about ten inches above 
the floor. In its centre is a square hole, as if for fixing 
an upright beam. One side of the cave is occupied 
by a long stone bench, in which is hollowed out a 
larger mortar, having a slit down the outer side. 
There can be no reasonable doubt that this was an oil 
press. The country still abounds with fine old olive 
trees, but its inhabitants have forgotten their use ; 
when the fruit is ripe, they assemble their sheep and 
cattle round the trees and shake and beat the branches, 
while the animals greedily devour the precious produce 
as it falls to the ground. The plain is in this direction 
covered with the olive mixed with the caroub, now 
loaded with its long dark pods. When left thus to the 
hand of nature, the caroub becomes an immense bush, 
pushing out suckers all round the parent trunk, which 
in size is hardly to be distinguished among them. The 
Bedawin have taken possession of many of the largest 
of these trees, and make them their summer residence, 
clearing out the centre and filling up the lower parts 
with walls of dry branches, above which the dark- 
green foliage rises with strange effect to the eye, but 



Chap. VI. AEAB SUMMER DWELLINGS. 81 

affording a most grateful shade from the sun. In such 
a bower I found four men seated round a rude forge 
repairing broken muskets ; while in others women were 
employed in household cares, such as the grinding of 
flour, or the weaving of the coarse hair- cloth of which 
the winter tents are made. From here we turned to 
seek a pass through the hills, and as the old road has 
now become, if not impracticable, at least most difficult 
for horses, we took a path a little to the left, passing 
over ground covered with old junipers ; the twisted 
and contorted ash-gray trunks of these trees, and their 
small tufts of hoary green, for they have no other vege- 
tation when very old, give the forest an appearance 
of decrepitude. The trees look like little old men 
bent, and bowed, and bald. From this the descent to 
the coast, even by the better road we had followed, is 
very precipitous. The supply of water had been for- 
gotten, and a leather bag of milk, offered by a goatherd 
whom we met, was most welcome. Having at last, 
after much slipping and stumbling, reached the point 
where the pass emerges from the hills, we found our- 
selves in a fertile plain, which it took nearly an hour 
to traverse before reaching the sea. The water is bad 
and scarce, and this plain is, therefore, only inhabited 
in the winter, when it is sown with wheat and barley, and 
as soon as these crops are cut, the Arabs, with their 
tents, remove to a station in the hills. The inhabit- 

E 3 



82 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. VI. 

ants were long since in the summer retreat, but we 
found two men threshing corn by the antique process 
of treading, which, as all readers of books of travels 
know, is still practised in parts of Egypt and Syria. I 
do not remember to have seen the process described as 
I found it practised here, and there may be others who 
may think it as curious as it seemed to me. Four 
oxen abreast are fastened together by the horns, their 
heads close to each other ; a fifth is in like way fas- 
tened to the inner one of these four, but the rope 
which secures his horns is tied round the middle of 
the belly of a sixth, whose head is in the same way 
fastened to him. This last pair, when driven, form as 
it were a revolving pivot, round which the four others 
move. One man drives them, and another is employed 
in heaping fresh corn upon the floor, and removing 
the straw which, by this process, is broken into small 
lengths, while the grain is, after all, but imperfectly 
separated from it. Biding on through the plain, we 
found it, though cultivated, extensively covered with 
the beautiful evergreen shrub, called in Italy, and here 
by the Arabs, Baturne ; it yields a medicinal berry. 
We now reached a group of low rocks hollowed out 
into many sepulchral caves. The soil has a reddish 
tint (whose reflection is heating to the eyes), which 
with a bright sun made the ride a hot one. On the 
sea- shore, just without the town, and opposite to a 



Chap. VI. RUINS OF APOLLONTA. 83 

rocky island covered with excavations and ruins, we 
found a well of very brackish water, which is the only 
one in this neighbourhood ; the town had been for- 
merly supplied by the water of a fountain nearly three 
miles off, conveyed to it by an aqueduct, portions of 
whose ruins we had passed. This want of water ren- 
ders a stay here very inconvenient, and prevented me 
following my original intention of spending some days 
in this place. The city was built on a semicircular 
line of rocks close to the shore, and buildings are still 
visible beneath the waters which have here encroached 
upon the old boundaries, probably by subsidence of 
the land. The fortifications on the land side are well 
preserved, and remarkable for a large round tower still 
almost entire, which rises at the south-west corner; 
it is connected with some large buildings in this part 
of the city, apparently of a castle ; towers flank the 
wall at irregular distances, and the position of one 
gate is well marked, though now blocked up by fallen 
ruins. Clambering over the wall one gains the inte- 
rior of the city, which is crowded with heaps of ruins, 
and presents the same confusion as a child's castle of 
wooden bricks when the last story has rendered it 
top-heavy and the whole falls upon itself. Some 
arches rise above the soil, and in a few places pieces 
of wall ; the ground is thickly strewed with large 
heaps of stone, columns of white marble and cipollino, 



84 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. VI. 

whose capitals are in general of indifferent workman- 
ship. The sites of ten large churches, each with 
an apse, are easily traced ; and the columns and 
cones of the capitals, adorned with the hall and cross, 
seem to indicate the fifth century as their date. The 
difficulty of excavating would he extreme, on account 
of the size of the heaps of stone which cover the 
ground, and the weight of the masses; hut this cir- 
cumstance, rendering it almost impossible for the 
Arabs to make any researches among the ruins, may 
probably have secured for the first person who is able 
to undertake the costly task, a rich harvest of early 
Christian antiquities. The theatre, outside the town, 
is more perfectly preserved than auything within it ; 
nearly one-half of the seats remain, but the prosce- 
nium has long since fallen into the sea, whose en- 
croaching waters now fill the orchestra. 

Eetuming by the same road I turned to the right, 
about an hour and a half from Grennah, to see the 
great caves called Maghyenat by the Arabs, and which 
are, in fact, supposed to have served as magazines for 
the merchandise coming from Apoilonia to Cyrene. 
They are situated at the foot of a hill, which is covered 
with ruins, including those of a temple ; everything 
seems to indicate that in this spot a considerable town 
must have once existed, though the imperfect notices 
of the ancient geography of this country which have 



Chap. VI. ANCIENT GRANARIES. v 85 

reached us, do not mention a town or village in this 
place. The caves are very extensive, supported by 
rude columns, irregularly disposed. One has a square 
fore- court cut in the rock, and seems to have been 
adorned with a facade ; another has a broad flight of 
steps leading down to the interior, which is covered 
with an archway in masonry. There are three of these 
caves, from 100 to 120 feet square, and they show 
nothing that could lead to the conjecture that they 
were ever intended for sepulture ; while their situation, 
as well as the name they have preserved to the present 
day, render the supposition that they served as maga- 
zines highly probable. I found one filled with hay 
and grain, and another was occupied as the habitation 
of several families. Turning homewards from this 
place, and crossing a deep ravine, we reached a very 
large natural circus at the foot of the hills, from above 
which flowed an abundant stream. The elliptical form 
was so perfectly defined that it was long before I could 
persuade myself that it had not been used as a circus 
in ancient times; but, though there are remains of 
building about the fountain, the remainder showed no 
appreciable marks of cutting away of the rock to form 
seats, or of the addition of masonry to complete the 
circuit. Another hour brought us, with the setting 
sun, back to the tents. 

Tuesday, September 7. — This morning I rode to 



86 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. VI. 

the sea-shore, taking a north-west direction, to visit 
some ruins, which an Arah had assured me existed 
there. I was in hope of rinding some remains of 
Phycus, which must have existed in this direction, or 
of the Garden of the Hesperides, which Scylax and 
other old authorities place in its neighbourhood. The 
country as far as the hills differed in no respect from 
that I had already seen — exhibiting a plain partly of 
rich soil, partly of rock, and cut up with deep ravines. 
We rode down the Wady El Agara, and reaching the 
hills, found, at a distance of two hours from Cyrene, 
ruins, apparently of a stronghold, on which is now 
built a marabut, called Sidi Kelileh. It is remarkable 
that so many of these chapels, raised over the graves 
of reputed saints, should be met with in all Mos- 
lem countries, and that even the tomb of the Prophet 
should be a mosque ; for this mode of honouring the 
dead is the object of a special prohibition, uttered, one 
would think, in too solemn a moment to be lightly 
transgressed. In El Tabaray's account of the Pro- 
phet's death, he relates, on the authority of a tradition 
derived from Aisha, his favourite wife, that on the day 
when he died, as he lay covered with a black cloak, 
his face to the wall, almost his last words were, " May 
God be unpropitious to those who make the tombs of 
his prophets places of prayer." I know not how the 
difficulty is got over ; perhaps, such tombs (being inside 



Chap. VI. CHAPELS BUILT OVER SAINTS' TOMBS. 87 

the chapels, or inclosed in railings, so that prayers are 
not said upon them) are not supposed to come within 
the meaning of the prohibition; in all Moslem 
countries many such chapels are found, and in no 
country more frequently than in this, where ignorant 
fanaticism still exists in a degree unequalled in the 
other Turkish provinces I have visited. 

From Sidi Kelileh we reached the summit of the 
range in an hour, and saw the sea at a gun-shot from 
the base of the thickly-wooded hill. Far to the right, 
the promontory of Nanstathmus, and about half-way 
between, on the shore, the ruins of Apollonia ; to the 
left, the mountain gradually closing upon the sea, 
which, a little further on, washes its base ; but there is 
no promontory here visible, nor had any of the natives 
ever heard of Ras-sem or Razat. The only indication 
which I could find of a promontory was at a point 
called El Bilanich, where the shore makes a very slight 
bend outwards, and above it the hills rise lofty, and 
very thickly wooded. A little to the right of the place 
where I descended we found a spring of sweet water, 
the only one on this coast — perhaps therefore the 
same at which the companions of Ulysses landed, when 
driven by stress of weather from off Cape Malia to the 
country of the Lotophagi. On the sea-shore, to the 
left, are the ruins of a strong tower, built of squared 
stones without cement, called by the Arabs Arbiah, 



88 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. VI. 

which seems to have served only as a fortalice, for 
there are no remains to indicate here the site of a 
town. Further on to the west is a curious shallow 
quarry cut in steps, from which the stones for the 
tower seem to have heen extracted ; and a little further 
on, a modern Arab khan, called Furtas, in the walls 
of which ancient materials are built. Thence I rode 
on to Bilanieh, where I found some excavations and 
levelled places on the rock, which may mark the site 
of Phycus. The sea-line from here turning slightly 
west by south-west, there seems no other place 
which will answer to the description of Phycus. I 
now climbed the hill above El Bilanieh, and not find- 
ing the Garden of the Hesperides, whose golden fruit 
would have been most grateful, I rested for a couple 
of hours under a stunted ilex. The face of the hill 
was very steep, and the horses had hard work among 
the smooth rocks in some places, but it only took half 
an hour to reach the summit, from which the table- 
land at once extends. Two hours and a quarter west 
by north-west of Grennah, we came upon considerable 
ruins, consisting of a large open reservoir; a small 
building with a well-preserved apse; and a larger one, 
probably of Arab construction, as it contained several 
pointed arches as well as one round arch. My guide 
called this place Shuni. Eastward we met with nume- 
rous remains of building and tombs, presenting no- 



Chap. VI. ABD-EL-KA DER'S WARRIORS. 89 

thing remarkable ; their frequency, however indicates 
the populous condition of the country in former times, 
of which another proof presented itself on our road 
homewards in a large and deep cistern, excavated in 
the rock, to receive the rain-waters. After my Arabs 
had drunk of its very muddy water, we rode onwards, 
crossing the Wady Mala'ab, pursued on our very 
horses by the fierce barking of the dogs of an Alge- 
rian donar, which had been for many months pitched 
in the plain below Grennah. Its inhabitants were as 
fine specimens of uncivil fanatics as one need wish to 
meet; they did not even deign to call off their dogs 
when the Christian stranger passed their circular 
encampment. Their chief is somewhat more politic; 
he frequently visited my tents, said that the English 
were good men, who beat the French, and then begged 
a supply of shot or writing-paper. He and his com- 
panions had long fought under Abd-el-Kader, and 
quitted their country rather than submit to infidel 
domination. 

To conclude my account of the more remarkable 
excursions around Grennah, I shall here in a few 
words speak of the vast conduit which exists at a 
place now called Saf-saf. It lies to the south-east of 
Grennah, at a distance of an hour and three-quarters, 
and is remarkable not only for its magnificent struc- 
ture, which resembles in size the Cloaca Maxima of 



90 WANDERINGS Of NORTH AFEICA. Chap. VI. 

Eome (though of a much later date), but also for the 
inscriptions, or rather quarry-marks, which are found 
on the stones of which the noble arch is built. These 
are very curious, containing not only Greek characters, 
like those in the reservoir at Cyrene (which this con- 
duit seems to have been destined to supply), but also 
other characters, resembling those of the Tawaricks, 
or the Thugga inscription. The following I copied, 
and I believe it is a tolerably complete list of all that 
exist in this place : A, AV, TPO, N^, II, IP, YT, 
K + 31, X2, -E, 41, +, x, W, (f> 3 the last six being 
apparently Libyan characters — a circumstance not to 
be wondered at, if we consider that the aboriginal 
population of the country would probably furnish a 
large contingent to the labouring classes. At one end 
the walls are covered with Arabic inscriptions, record- 
ing the visits of various Beys of Benghazi and other 
personages — a mark of interest rarely met with in the 
East. The winter rains were still collected in this 
reservoir; and when I was there at the end of summer, 
notwithstanding the drought of the last years, there 
was still a small supply of water remaining in one 
part of the vast archway. 

The walls of the town are still to be traced, and the 
ground-plans of several buildings ; but none are of 
any importance, excepting a small temple, with fluted 
pilasters, only wanting the roof and fronton, which, 



Chap. VI. TEMPLE OF BACCHUS. 91 

with the entablature, lie on the ground before it. It 
is mentioned by Delia Cella as a temple of Bacchus, 
with a frieze of vine-leaves and grapes, but of these I 
could distinguish no trace, and I am inclined to think 
that the lichens with which it is overgrown may have, 
at a distance, deceived him. The line of tombs extends 
the whole way from Cyrene to Jafsuf, and a large 
conduit covered with heavy stones runs along the side 
of the road. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Grennah, a Charming Eetreat — Pleasant Camping-ground.— Ren- 
contre with an Arab Saint — The Son of a Rich Prince. — Striking 
Cures. 

After spending six weeks in Grennah, I struck my 
tent most unwillingly, and made preparations to con- 
tinue my journey eastwards. It was too late in the 
autumn longer to sojourn here, as I wished to see the 
other remains of antiquity which exist in this country. 
The rains set in usually about the middle of November, 
and then come down with a violence which no tent 
can resist. But I cannot quit my pleasant quarters 
near the fountain without a few words in praise of a 
country where I have found both recreation and health. 
I have already told what abundant materials of inte- 
rest it offers to the antiquarian. The sportsman will 
■find ample employment among the red-legged par- 
tridges, quails, and kata'ah, a sort of yellow grouse, and 
a little further south, he will meet with the gazelle and 
the houbara, or bustard ; while the lover of a luxurious 



Chap. YTL GEENNAH, A CHAEMING EETEEAT. 93 

climate, decked with all the beauties of nature, will 
sympathise in the story of the Odyssey, and easily 
picture, to himself the difficulty with which the Ithacan 
tore away his companions from the land of the 
Lotophagi. A more delightful residence for the sum- 
mer months cannot be imagined. The nights and 
mornings are always cool. In the daytime the ther- 
mometer ranges from 75° to 98°, the highest I have 
seen it ; but there blows all day a cool breeze from the 
sea, which renders the heat insensible in the tent, and 
quite endurable on horseback. The means of com- 
fortable existence are by no means wanting. A sheep 
costs from 4s. 6d. to 6s. , and will keep good for four 
days; vegetables and fruit can be obtained from 
Derna, where the grape, the banana, the pear, and the 
water-melon, are abundant; potatoes, bamias, tomatoes, 
cucumbers, and many other vegetables, may also be 
had there. Vegetables are likewise cultivated in this 
neighbourhood, in the little gardens of the Bedawin ; 
and the milk of their cows affords the richest cream 
I ever tasted, though the pale butter which is made 
from it is not very good. A man must, therefore, be 
very hard to please, as far as the substantial necessaries 
of life are concerned, if he be not satisfied with such 
fare as this country affords; of course, wine, beer, 
biscuits, cheese, and such other superfluities, must 
be obtained from Malta. There is also to be had 



94 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. VII. 

here a substitute for the Swiss " cure de raisins" in 
the camel's-milk, which, from experience, I can recom- 
mend as singularly efficacious. When drunk fresh, it 
is hardly to be distinguished from the milk of the cow, 
though richer ; but in cooling it acquires a most dis- 
agreeable salt-taste. Warm or cold, it is equally effi- 
cacious, and might fairly take its place among the 
remedies prescribed by the faculty. If nowhere else 
in Europe, it might probably be obtained in Pisa, from 
the farm of the Grand Duke. 

To the traveller who has tarried in Egypt till the 
spring — who is tired of Syria, and unwilling to go to 
Europe, a more delightful retreat for summer cannot 
be suggested. The air is far purer than in any part of 
Italy, the scenery more beautiful and more varied, and 
fever and dysentery are unknown. From early spring 
to the middle of October, no rain ever falls, though the 
sky after the middle of August is almost always cloudy ; 
a heavy night- dew supplies the moisture which, at 
this season, covers the hills with a fresh coat of 
verdure. The distance from Alexandria to Derna is 
not great, and there is constant communication by sea 
between the two places. I should recommend for 
encampment one of the terraces in the eastern part of 
the Wady Bil Ghadir, a little beyond the first foun- 
tain, in descending the Wady from the south, rather 
than the fountain by which I pitched my tents. There 



Chap. VII. PLEASANT CAMPING GEOUND. 95 

is here a triangular patch of ground, beneath a lofty 
rock, which shelters it from the mid-day and evening 
sun ; trees rise on every side, and there is a break in 
the hills, giving a lovely peep of the sea. The ground is 
dry gravel ; along the edge of the terrace runs a stream- 
let of water from the fountain ; and, near at hand, are 
some caves, which, if cleaned out, would make commo- 
dious store-rooms, or would serve other useful purposes. 
It is not, like the fountain, a place of resort for the 
camels, oxen, goats, sheep, and Bedawin, in the neigh- 
bourhood ; and is free, therefore, from the dirt and in- 
sects they leave behind them. Where I was, the wind 
is sometimes disagreeable, raising clouds of dust which 
filled the tent ; the other spot is more sheltered, and 
even in high wind, is secure from dust. If the tra- 
veller is accompanied by such a guide as Mohammed, 
who spent all his time in buying beeves, let him be 
prepared to have a hundred objections raised to the 
situation, as this place is not convenient for such pur- 
chases — " experto crede." 

From the disagreeable experience I have had of the 
servants of this country, I should advise travellers to 
bring with them all the servants they may require, 
even to a groom, either Maltese, or what is better still, 
Egyptians. Their ignorance of the roads is of little 
consequence, as few of the Benghazi people are ac- 
quainted with them ; for guides it is better to trust the 



96 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. VII. 

camel- drivers : by doing so the travellers will have ser- 
vants who know their duty, and who, having no private 
interests to serve in the country, fear not to dis- 
please the people; Mohammed, serving his own, utterly 
neglected my interests. Egyptian servants would not 
be more expensive than Benghazini, and they have 
none of that overweening Moslem pride, which 
makes the latter regard a Christian as something 
infinitely beneath them. 

There is one nuisance in Cyrene, too characteristic 
of the country not to be mentioned. A small com- 
munity of Derwishes, or Marabuts, as they are called 
here, has established itself lately in one of the largest 
tombs not far from the fountain. They belong to an 
order recently founded by a reputed saint, called the 
Sheikh Es-Senousy, and their president in Grennah is 
a fanatic of the first water, who will not defile his eyes 
by even looking at a Christian. He busily employed 
himself after my arrival here, in impressing upon my 
servants the degradation of serving me. The conse- 
quence was, that they all grew so uncivil — I must 
except the cook — that I was at last obliged to 
change them. The groom — an eater of pork and 
drinker of wine in the town — here missed none of the 
five prayers; and, between the devotion of my ser- 
vants and their visitors, the encampment resounded all 
day long with " Allah akbar ! " I was glad to see so 



Chap. VII. RENCONTRE WITH AN ARAB SAINT. 97 

much religion among my people ; but I could have 
wished it productive of a little more civility. 

Not content with giving such good lessons to the 
servants, his saintship was, it seems, seriously annoyed 
by my presence here ; and particularly at my having 
once or twice passed before the cave which he inhabits. 
He sent some of his people here, to say that, if I or 
my Christian servant again passed before his door, he 
would fire upon us ; but Mohammed, who received the 
message, knew me too well to deliver it. By chance, 
that same afternoon, whilst I was engaged below, among 
some of the other tombs, my servant took this path, little 
suspecting that he should thereby incur the holy man's 
displeasure. Two Arabs, armed with large stones, came 
to oblige him to turn back ; but he, luckily, had 
his gun in his hand, and they consequently retreated. 
Next morning, I sent to Abou Bekr, to complain 
of the insult offered to me, assuring him that not a 
day should pass thenceforward without my taking the 
tabooed road. It was too delicate a matter, it seems, 
for him to deal with directly, the church assuming 
here, as elsewhere, a separate jurisdiction; he, there- 
fore, sent one of his sons to the superior of the chief 
convent, with letters to request the punishment of the 
offenders. Meantime, I kept my word, and, in going 
out in the evening, I took this road ; when I found an 
assemblage of some thirty Arabs, of all ages, prepared 

F 



98 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. VII. 

to bar my passage. As I advanced quietly, they drew 
on one side, but as I passed them, one small stone was 
thrown at, but missed me; on which I turned, and, 
going straight among them, desired to know the name 
of the fellow who had thrown the stone. This informa- 
tion, naturally enough, I could not obtain from them; 
but I had seen the man who threw the stone, remark- 
ing that he was more than ordinarily ugly ; I, there- 
fore, threatened that I would have both him and them 
punished. 

The next day the offenders were brought before the 
great Sheikh's secretary — a man, I discovered, of good 
sense and manners — who condemned them, with their 
superior, to fifty strokes a-piece of his three-tailed 
courbaj — a punishment which was immediately ad- 
ministered, and will not, I hope, be soon forgotten. 
It was really necessary to enforce such punishment, 
however painful to one's own feelings ; for lenity to 
these people, whose chief intelligence lies in the 
soles of their feet, would only have emboldened them 
to more serious attacks. The next day, Hamed> son 
of Abou Bekr, arrived to enforce their superior's 
orders on the Derwishes ; and he then came to pay 
me a visit, to make his father's excuses for not 
having returned mine ; his soldiers, he said, were busy 
collecting the miri, so that he could not assemble a 
sufficient escort to enable him to come with safety. 



Chap. VII. THE SOIST OF A RICH PRINCE. 99 

This excuse, though strange, "was perfectly true, for, in 
fact, this Arab Sheikh and Bey could not venture be- 
yond the walls of his castle, even to his hareem, at the 
distance of a bow-shot, without a guard. His visit, 
including the dinner, did not occupy more than four 
hours, a very reasonable visitation from an Arab. He 
seemed not wanting in intelligence ; and yet he could 
not, or would not, tell me the number of men under 
his father's jurisdiction, nor even the number of tribes. 
Indeed, he appeared to have doubts as to the exact 
number of his ten brothers : first, he said they were 
nine ; then, on counting them all over on his fingers, 
eleven, but he included himself. This son of a prince 
of great comparative wealth — Abou Bekr being worth 
at least some 5000/. a year — the possessor of wives, and 
herds, and flocks, wore a shirt as filthy as the Catholic 
Isabella's, a cotton skull-cap to match, a burneau far 
from clean, and a pair of slippers as shabby and worn 
as the meanest Bedawy's. At the end of the visit, he 
told me he was badly off for soap, as his appearance 
too plainly testified, and asked for a square, which, 
with not a little grumbling, my servant gave him. 
Poor fellow ! he has an abscess in the side, which 
threatens him with consumption, unless the favourite 
remedy for all inward complaints in this country — 
burning with a hot iron — should effect a cure. He 
promised to consult a medical man who is at Derna at 

F 2 



100 WANDERINGS IN NOETH AFRICA. Chap. VII. 

present ; but I know that he will not do so, for fear of 
having to pay for a consultation or the medicines. The 
Arabs are fond enough of taking medicine when they 
can procure it gratis, but to pay for it seems against 
their creed. When the purse-strings are to be drawn, 
then they say, as he did, "Allah houa es-shafry" — 
" God is the curer," to which I answered him, by com- 
pleting the sentence, as it is inscribed over the phar- 
macy of the Benfratelli in Eome, " Nos re medium, 
Deus salutem." 

The people of the country, when seriously ill, will 
go long distances to obtain advice from a European 
doctor ; but rather than pay for the medicine he 
orders, they will hand over more than its price to 
one of their Fikkehs for an amulet or an incantation. 
These are the learned men generally employed as 
tutors, or schoolmasters, or readers of the Koran. 
They ascribe all illnesses to Satanic influence ; and 
their exorcisms are directed to drive the Devil out of 
the patient. I am somewhat incredulous as to this 
origin of disease ; but I confess that the cures they 
sometimes perform are astonishing. When called to a 
sick person, they generally begin by telling his friends 
that he has so many devils ; then, after a time, they 
will say only so many remain; and, finally, after 
further exorcisms, not unaccompanied by an increased 
honorary (no pay, no pater-noster), they sometimes 



Chap. VII. STRIKING CURES. 101 

really succeed in effecting a perfect cure. Even Jews 
and Christians resort to them ; and I heard a well- 
authenticated instance from a medical man, who had 
himself visited the patient, of a rheumatic fever cured 
in this way. On this occasion the invalid was confined 
to bed, unable to move, and his Fikkeh assured him 
he was held down by many devils. He, therefore, 
after some prayers, belaboured them soundly with a 
courbaj, to make them depart. The strokes intended 
for the devils, naturally enough, made the patient also 
smart; and the pain of the flogging exceeding, I sup- 
pose, that of the rheumatism, the sick man at last 
started up to escape it, and the devils were declared to 
be expelled; but next day they returned, when the 
Fikkeh was again summoned, his remedy was again 
applied with undiminished energy, and the man was 
really cured. Poor old Keate would have been as 
great a Fikkeh in the East as he was in the West. 
Whilst I was in Benghazi, a Jewish girl who had been 
mad for a long time, was restored to her senses by one 
of these men ; but on this occasion only prayers and 
fumigations were used. I have not seen any of these 
cures performed ; but relying fully on the sources from 
which I obtained my information, have no doubt of 
their truth; admitting certain of the strange mental 
phenomena produced by so-called animal magnetism, 
I do not see, indeed, why I need disbelieve them. 



102 



WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. VII. 



Whilst on the subject of wonders, I may mention, 
that discoverers of stolen property are not less fre- 
quently met with here than in Egypt ; and that they 
often succeed in indicating either the thief, or the place 
where the missing goods are concealed, hut never 
both, though more frequently the latter than the 
former, which indicates pretty clearly that their know- 
ledge is to be attributed to the fears of the culprit. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



An Arab " Yendetta."— Coquetry at the Wells. — A Bridal Proces- 
sion. — The Okbah Pass. 

September 12th. — It was late in the day before the 
camels which I had engaged to take my luggage to 
Derna were ready, and much time was lost, even after 
a start was made, before they were fairly in march. 
This is almost always the case the first day of a 
journey with new camels, as their owners are never 
content with the distribution of the luggage, each seek- 
ing to lighten his own load at the expense of his 
fellows. 

The road for an hour and a half follows the direc- 
tion of Safsaf, and then turning to the right proceeds 
over an undulating country, from which, occasionally, 
ravines run down to the lower ground, and in these 
the cedar or cypress trees afford a welcome shade. I 
have already spoken of these trees, the universal orna- 
ment of this country ; but I must not omit to mention 



104 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. VIII. 

that they are of a peculiar species. The wood is of a pale 
yellowish colour, like that of the cypress, and has the 
same perfume ; hut the tree itself assumes an infinity 
of shapes, and in this respect is certainly the most 
"beautiful that I have ever seen. It rarely grows in the 
straight spiral form of the common cypress ; more fre- 
quently its branches stretch out at right angles to the 
trunk, like the cedar of Lebanon, and sometimes it 
assumes a parasol form, like the stone pine ; hut what- 
ever its form, it always throws a deep broad shade. 
At two hours and three-quarters from Grennah are the 
ruins of a square fortalice; these, arid large heaps of 
squared stones in the neighbourhood, marking the site 
of other buildings, seem to show that it was a place of 
some size. Beneath the ruin is a well, called Labrak, 
in a wide grassy plain, where some twenty years ago a 
bloody battle was fought, which resulted in the esta- 
blishment of my friend Abou Bekr's power, and in 
the total overthrow of the tribe of Beni Hadhra, seven 
hundred of whom are said to be buried in this spot. 
The remainder, with their chief, a cousin-german of 
the conqueror, fled to Egypt, where they obtained a 
settlement in the Fazoum; but they are ready to 
return the instant a chance of obtaining revenge pre- 
sents itself. This may not be distant, as the Bey has 
a feud with another branch of his family, which feud 
the government of Benghazi is endeavouring to put an 



Chap. VIII. AN AEAB " VENDETTA." 105 

end to, but with small hopes of success, his enemies 
having sworn, "by the divorce/' to destroy Abou Bekr 
or leave the country. The continuance of his rule 
hardly seems desirable, as both he and his son are 
accused of the wildest excesses and basest meannesses 
of which Arabs can be guilty, in addition to systematic 
oppression of the people. Our excellent Vice-Consul 
in Derna told me that, a few days before my arrival, 
one of the sons of my host of Cariab came to beg a 
little sugar of him. He was then living in the Bazaar, 
and came to the Consul's residence outside the town, 
hoping thus to save himself the few piastres, with 
which he could have bought what he wanted. These 
men will ask for or take, according to circumstances, 
whatever they see, were it only a scrap of cotton 
enough to make a skull-cap. 

An hour and a quarter from Labrak lies Gabiout 
Younes, marked by large ruins, among which are many 
arches; a large building which, from its style, I thought 
Byzantine; and another, certainly Saracenic, approached 
by a lofty arched gateway. This building is composed 
of vaulted chambers, and was the first specimen of Sa- 
racenic architecture I had met with, but it is entirely 
destitute of other decoration than the beautiful light 
arch of the gateway. Here, as in every spot where 
ancient buildings are found, are large reservoirs. Only 
three-quarters of an hour further on are the more 

F 3 



106 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. VIII. 

extensive ruins called by the Arabs Tirt (like dirt), in 
the maps Tereth, containing four castle-like buildings 
and many tombs. Two old reservoirs serve as a Zavia, 
or habitation of Derwishes, of the same order as my 
friends of Grennah, and I found here the largest en- 
campment of Bedawy (of the 'Ailet G-haith) which I 
have yet seen. They suffered me to wander about the 
ruins without molestation, but showed no signs of 
friendliness — thanks, doubtless, to the instructions of 
the Derwishes, who have been of late years very 
active in these countries in spreading a feeling of hos- 
tility to Christians. Northwards from the ruins extends 
a plain called Haou el Zouz. From here, continuing 
nearly eastwards, in two hours and a quarter we passed 
the ruins of Lamloudeh, formerly Limnis, covering a 
large space of ground, but, as usual in this country, 
without a trace of inscriptions. There is a tolerably 
preserved castle, which seems to have received at a pe- 
riod long subsequent to its erection an additional fortifi- 
cation in a sloping embankment, some eight feet high, 
of small unsquared stones piled against the walls. Here, 
and at Tirt, I remarked large numbers of round and oval 
flat stones hollowed on one side to a depth of about 
six inches, with a square hole in the centre. Except- 
ing one which lies flat and, I think, in its original 
position, all the others are sticking upright in the 
ground. They are more like mill-stones than anything 



Chap. VIII. COQUETRY AT THE WELLS. 107 

else; but, besides some of them being oval, their 
size is so large, varying from forty-five to sixty 
inches in diameter, and their number is so great, that 
I can hardly think this their original destination. 
There is to be seen in Rome a stone called the "Bocca 
della verita" which has nearly the same form as these; 
it was the mouth of a sewer, according to the general 
account, and perhaps these stones may have served as 
the covers of cisterns ; but I found none connected with 
any existing excavation. The ruins are built on the 
side of a hill and contain many arches, all bearing 
the impress of the Eoman period. Beneath the town 
lay four very large reservoirs connected with each 
other, partly cut in the rock, partly built. A little to 
the east is a subterraneous passage, now very much 
choked up, which the Arabs pretend communicates with 
the citadel, and near it are many broken sarcophagi 
and cave tombs, as far as I was able to see, all devoid 
of ornament. 

From Lamloudeh the road passes through a beau- 
tiful wood of arbutus, over long low hills, which, leav- 
ing Zimah to the right, gradually descend into a 
plam, watered by two fountains, which is called the 
Kubbeh. The stream issues in considerable volume 
from the rock, in front of which still stands a portico 
(El Kubbeh) supported by five (formerly eight) 
square pillars. In front the ground is covered with 



108 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. YITI. 

remains of buildings apparently connected with the 
fountain, and the rocks behind contain a great many 
large tombs, as well as a flight of steps leading to the 
ground above. Eound the fountain I found large 
flocks of sheep and goats, with their shepherds, who were 
busy drawing water, with which they filled troughs 
formed of stones taken from the old buildings ; 
women also, who, with their donkeys, had come for the 
supply of water required for their households. Here 
I seated myself on the top of the portico, in the shade 
of the rock, against which it is built, waiting for my 
camels to come up, and found amusement enough in 
watching the coquetries of the ladies and the awk- 
ward gallantries of the men. ( The well is still, as in 
the days of Eebecca, the place for flirtations. The 
filling two skins and tying them on the donkey were 
so adroitly managed, that, with many words and much 
laughter, the men seeming to aid, but really impeding 
the operation, at least two hours were consumed at the 
well. The Bedawin, as I have already said, are very 
sparing in their use of water, their bread even being 
generally made with milk, so that the visits to the 
wells, often at a great distance, are only made once in 
three or four days. Whilst I sat on the Kubbeh, a 
wedding party conducting a bride to her husband came 
in sight, and for two hours I had the amusement of 
watching them, as it is a point of honour to consume 



Chap. VIII. A BRIDAL PROCESSION. 109 

the whole day on the road from the bride's house to 
her husband's tent ; and as this was at no great dis- 
tance, and the Kubbeh a sort of public place, it took 
the party two hours to go over a space which I rode 
along in five minutes. The bride was invisible, shut 
up in an arched box called a carmout, placed on a 
camel, the centre part or arch covered with black hair- 
cloth, the ends with white cotton, the housings of the 
camel being also of a dark colour. The cortege con- 
sisted of six horsemen (among whom were neither her 
father nor her husband), several men, and eight or ten 
women on foot. At every hundred paces the proces- 
sion stopped, the women raised the wild cry of re- 
joicing called Zaghazhit, and some of the men per- 
formed a sort of awkward dance in front of the camel, 
which ended with a discharge of guns. Whilst in 
sight they once varied the entertainment with a mimic 
fight, when there was much waste of powder, and once, 
on a level piece of ground, the horsemen gave chase to 
each other, the only graceful feature in their sports. 
Then, with a fresh burst of the Zaghazhit from the 
ladies, the procession moved on. From what I hear of 
the fair sex in this country, they do not seem to have 
much degenerated from the reputation which Hero- 
dotus has given to their predecessors the Gindanes. 
Of course I am unwilling to believe all the scandalous 



110 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. VIII. 

tales which were told me, hut the existence of such 
stories seems to prove that irregularities, unknown or 
carefully concealed in other Mussulman countries, here 
excite little attention. Divorces are frequent, hut they 
arise most frequently from the caprice of the men, and, 
far from "being considered disgraceful to the lady, 
many persons prefer those who have already made 
the happiness of second hushands to inexperienced 
maidens, as their successive dowers, paid in full at 
each divorce, frequently make them, for the country, 
wealthy. The usual corbeil given to a hride consists 
of four rotoli of silver, half a rotolus of gold, and some 
pieces of stuff for dresses. Only a part of the metal 
is in general paid down, the remainder a deht due, 
in case of divorce, to the lady, or, in case of her death, 
to her heirs, that is, her children, or, if she have left 
none, to her family. 

To the north of El-Kubbeh, not in the direct road 
to Derna, lies Messakit, where are some curious caves, 
one of them containing rudely- carved emhlems, of 
Christian origin. A gently-undulating plain leads 
eastward to Beit Thamr, near which are many exca- 
vations, one of them evidently part of a country house, 
where the apparatus for pressing oil is still to be seen, 
hewn in the living rock. This is one of the places 
where bees are reared in great numbers, for the sake 



Chap. VIII. THE OKBAH PASS. Ill 

principally of their wax. Our English hees would, 
perhaps, rebel, if one attempted to house them in the 
long wooden boxes, which here supply the place of the 
elegant and commodious habitations they are accus- 
tomed to ; but their fellows of the Oyrenaica, though 
less pampered, produce larger supplies of wax, and 
the honey almost vies in flavour with that of Hymettus. 
After passing Beit Thamr, the road enters a valley, 
called Brouk, filled with small streams, the last which 
are met with till close upon Derna. Above, on the 
heights, are ruins of a castle, and along the valley 
many excavations, one of which, containing a fountain, 
has a number of niches, as if for votive offerings or 
statues. Here the road begins to ascend through a 
beautiful wooded country, affording cover to numbers 
of the red-legged partridge, of which we started whole 
coveys at every turn. The grave of a Marabut, called 
Sidi Yadem, on the top of this ridge, was our sleeping 
place. From this point to the summit of the steep 
descent which leads to the coast, is a journey of four 
hours and a half, over rising grounds, affording, in the 
breaks of the hills, occasional glimpses of the sea ; and 
on the heights are many remains of ruined fortalices. 
The descent, called the Okbah, though certainly steep, 
is not the fearful pass which it has been described ; 
and in all this journey I never had occasion, from the 



112 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. Till. 

badness of the road, to dismount from horseback. In 
the last years, I believe something has been done to 
improve this piece of road, which may be considered 
good by any one who is acquainted with the passes of 
the Lebanon. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Improvidence of the Arabs. — Derna, its lively appearance. — 
Ruined Battery. — Curious Bargain. 

From the summit of the Okbah one looks down upon 
a long line of coast, the view extending to the pro- 
montory Has el Hilal (Nausthasmus) on the left, and 
eastward to the Has el Tin. The hills which run along 
the sea-line to the right are barren sandstone ; the 
coast, a line of low rocks ; and from this point Derna 
is only just visible, as a dark spot on the sea-shore in 
the midst of glaring sands. It took an hour to descend 
from this height to the more level ground ; and the 
intense heat reflected from the sandy soil, where not a 
shrub affords the slightest shade, made this the least 
pleasant three hours' ride I had yet had in this 
country. Neither well nor fountain is met with in 
this day's march till about an hour from Derna, where 
a brackish spring issues from the rock, and flows 
directly into the sea, in a situation where it is difficult 



114 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. IX. 

to find it. At length, after ascending a low hill of 
sand, which had hitherto bounded the view ahead, the 
green gardens of Derna relieve the eye, lying between 
the foot of hare rocky hills and the sea. Here I was 
most kindly received by the English Vice- Consul, 
Mr. Aquilina, whose ready hospitality I with difficulty 
declined, being unwitting to inflict the presence of 
strange servants on his establishment. Through his 
kindness I was soon put in possession of a garden, 
where I pitched my tent under the shade of its palms 
and fig-trees. Though we had not before met, I was 
already indebted to this gentleman for many of the 
attentions shown me while at Grennah; and during 
my stay here I derived from him much valuable infor- 
mation — the result of his thirteen years' residence 
among them — regarding the people of the country and 
their governors. 

Leo Africanus, in the sixth book of his " Descrip- 
tion of Africa," gives an account of the poverty of the 
inhabitants of Bare a, and tells how they were in the 
habit of bartering their children for corn with the 
merchants of Sicily. The spontaneous fertility and 
pastoral wealth of the country, as I saw it, seemed to 
contradict this account, though the general fidelity of 
the author inclined me to place almost implicit belief 
in him. In Derna I afterwards learned, that his 
description, instead of exceeding, falls far short of 



Chap. IX. IMPROVIDENCE OF THE AEABS. 115 

the truth during the seasons when the country is 
desolated by one of those blights which occur at un- 
certain periods. The Arabs of Gebel-el-Achdar are 
among the least provident people in the world; and 
when a reverse befalls them, are one and all, the 
poor and the wealthy, reduced to the greatest straits. 
When the crops are abundant, everything becomes 
dear, labour can be obtained on no terms, the Arab 
refuses to sell either his cattle or flocks, he buys slaves 
and horses at any price, and setting his cap on one 
side, spends all his time in riding and gormandising. 
But sometimes a flight of locusts descends upon the 
country, and in a few hours every blade of corn or 
grass, and every leaf, have disappeared ; or successive 
years of drought wither up the crops, and then, no 
provender remaining for the cattle, the wells are ex- 
hausted, and pestilence, which spares neither man nor 
beast, follows hard upon the scarcity and the drought. 
Then, though too late, the Arab is as anxious to sell 
all he has at any price he can obtain, as he was before 
hard in his dealings and careless of reasonable gain. 
He eats the corn reserved for seed, and when the rains 
at length descend to fecundate the country, the fields 
remain unsown. Such a visitation came upon them 
some eight years ago. Their cattle, the great wealth 
of the country, died for want of food ; the next year 
there was no grain for sowing, and then the misery 



116 "WANDERINGS TN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. IX. 

was so terrible that it would require the pen of a Defoe 
to describe it. The strongest guard was insufficient to 
insure the safety of the traveller in such a season ; 
misery rendered the people desperate, so that it seemed 
easier to them to die in combat than by the slow 
agony of want. Parents sold their children literally 
for a few measures of barley : a very pretty girl was 
offered to one of my acquaintance for two dollars ; and 
I know some persons who, through pure compassion, 
bought children at this price. The dying were devoured 
even before life was extinct ; and in the ravings of 
hunger, as eye-witnesses have related to me, the poor 
wretches would gnaw the thighs and arms of those 
who, more reduced than themselves, were too weak 
to defend themselves. Thousands emigrated into 
Egypt, and hundreds of them died of exhaustion 
on the road thither. 

We read in antiquity, even in the flourishing days 
of the empire, of terrible famines in this country; 
but these, doubtless, were alleviated by the resources 
of the other provinces. Though again subject to an 
extensive empire, the country can now look for no 
such assistance when these disasters fall upon it. The 
duty of the provinces is, to send yearly subsidies to 
the capital; that of the Government is, to send rapa- 
cious satraps to enrich themselves by the spoils of the 
people, and to stifle their complaints. 



Chap. IX. DERNA— ITS LIVELY APPEARANCE. 117 

The town of Derna is composed of four villages — 
Upper and Lower Derna, and Upper and Lower Bou 
Mansour, the former separated from the two latter 
villages by a broad, stony wady, which in winter forms 
the bed of one of the two streams whose abundant 
waters, diverted by a former governor into many 
channels, flow through all the streets, and are at 
regular periods distributed to the different gardens in 
winch the houses of the town are situated. These 
many streams of water, and the gardens from which 
rise thousands of splendid palms, rich in the bright 
green of the banana and the reddening leaf of the 
vine, give this place a strong resemblance to some of 
the villages on the outskirts of Damascus, a resem- 
blance ;;which is still further increased by the arid 
barrenness of the hills above and of the surrounding 
country. Unfortunately this luxuriant vegetation, as 
too often happens in these lands, is accompanied by 
periodical fevers, dysentery, and ophthalmia, which the 
sea-breezes seem to have no effect in preventing. An 
old castle, now in ruins, which once commanded the 
town from the hill above, and the lanes which lead to 
to it, overarched, as they are, with verdure, through 
which the rays of the sun pierce in chequered patches, 
form a most picturesque scene. The whole town has 
an air of prosperity far surpassing that of Benghazi, 
though its population, about 4500 souls, is smaller, and 



118 



WANDE KINGS IN NOETH AFEICA. Chap. IX. 



its trade is comparatively insignificant. It consists 
principally in exports of wax, great quantities of which 
are produced in the neighbouring country, occasional 
cargoes of cattle for Malta, and sheep, which are 
yearly sent in vast flocks by land a journey of thirty- 
five days to Alexandria. Antiquarian remains are 
few, Darnis having been a place of not the slightest 
importance until about the fourth century : they con- 
sist of some traces of the ancient port at the western 
extremity of the town, a Eoman gateway, and some 
excavations in the hills. 

Derna has no harbour. From September to January 
its roadstead is sufficiently secure, but after this month 
no ship can anchor there in safety, as it is entirely 
exposed to the north and east winds, which then blow 
with great fury. There is, to the east of the town, a 
point where the shore makes a bend, on which may be 
seen a ruined battery, with half a dozen dismounted 
guns ; it serves as a monument to record the fact that 
this place was held by the Americans, for a short 
period, about thirty years ago.* Probably the diffi- 

* When at Derna I was unahle to obtain information concern- 
ing the origin of the American battery which seemed here so 
strangely out of place. I am indebted to Edwin De Leon, Esq., 
Consul- General for the U.S. in Egypt, for the following account of 
it. Achmed, Pasha of Tripoli, having been deposed by his brother 
Yusuf in 1801, took refuge in Tunis. Before long the new pasha 
found himself embroiled with the U. S., through capturing some 
vessels bearing their flag. Determined to punish him, they offered 



Chap. IX. RUINED BATTERY. 119 

culty of making a harbour (they had planned an 

excavated basin in the wady which separates Dema 

from Bou Mansour), as well as the traditional policy 

of their country, always opposed to distant settlements, 

decided them to abandon the place. 

I spent a very pleasant fortnight in Derna, en- 

the ex-pasha the means of recovering his throne, but after long 
negotiations he left Malta without effecting anything, and retired to 
Egypt. His American allies had not, however, lost sight of him, 
and they induced him, by a grant of supplies and the nomination of 
an officer in their service, General Eaton, who took the command 
of his forces, to march upon Dema. Of this place he easily got 
possession, and it was then that this battery was erected. After a 
few months, being deserted by his allies, who made a treaty with 
Yusuf Pasha, in which his interests seem to have been little cared 
for, he retired to Malta, and thence to Syracuse, where he lived, 
partly supported by occasional sums granted by the Government of 
the U. S., partly by a small pension which their representative ob- 
tained for him from his brother. After various vicissitudes, he re- 
turned to Egypt, where, as the guest of Mohammed Ali, he enjoyed 
a liberal income. On his death apart of this was transferred to his 
only son, but was suppressed by Abbas Pasha. I found the son, 
now an old man, bedridden with palsy, in a state of frightful 
destitution, dependent for his support on the charity of servants. 
Mr. De Leon applied to the present Viceroy to obtain a restora- 
tion of the pension the son had so long enjoyed, and by his recom- 
mendation induced the Minister of the U. S. at Constantinople to 
ask the Porte to restore a small property in Tripoli, once belonging 
to his father, and of which he had enjoyed the revenue during the 
late Pasha's reign, but which the Ottoman Government seized for 
its own benefit after his deposition. Hussein Bey Caramanly, the 
surviving son of Achmed Pasha, is, as his father was before him, 
an American protege, up to the present time a very useless title, 
but from which he is now, thanks to Mr. De Leon's energy, likely 
to obtain some advantage. His father's story, in all its details, is 
told in the Acts of Congress, 1807-8. 



120 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. IX. 

camped within reach of the sea- spray when the winds 
"blew strong ; but before I left I began to experience 
that feeling of discomfort which malaria is apt to give 
when it does not produce fever ; and, notwithstanding 
the beauty of the place, and the attentions of Mr. 
Aquilina and his family, I was glad to find myself 
once more on the heights of the Okbah. 

October 1. — I returned to Ain-esh-Shehad nearly 
by the same route which I had followed in coming to 
Derna, and there I spent ten days in revisiting some 
of the most beautiful spots in its neighbourhood, and 
in the enjoyment of the pure light air of its hills. I 
had left a part of my baggage in the charge of one of 
the Arabs of the place ; and though the eatables must 
have been tempting, I had not to complain of any 
great indiscretion in his visits to my sacks. Though 
my neighbours were fanatical, I had, on the whole, no 
reason to be dissatisfied with them ; with the excep- 
tion of the Marabut and his pupils, they gave me very 
little trouble, and their thefts were confined to articles 
of trifling value. I had got rid of my friend Moham- 
med at Derna, with the servants, children, and horses 
which he had quartered upon me, so that there was no 
longer a daily fair held round my tents ; and thus the 
last days I spent at Grennah were among the most 
agreeable of my residence there. 

The advancing autumn, the threatening clouds 



Chap. IX. CURIOUS BARGAIN. 121 

which now overshadowed the sky, and the increasing 
cold of the nights, warned me not to prolong my stay ; 
and with regret I tore myself from a place where I had 
spent two quiet months so pleasantly, and, as far as 
health at least was concerned, so profitably. I find 
among my notes of these last days mention made of a 
curious bargain, which was struck in my presence ; it 
was the sale of half a mare. The price of the entire 
animal was fixed at a certain sum, half of which was 
paid down by the purchaser, who took possession of 
the mare, which he was bound to keep in good condi- 
tion. The foals were to be joint property, and the 
original proprietor could at any time have the use of 
the mare, or, by repaying the purchase-money, again 
become her sole proprietor. This is a common trans- 
action ; and as a fourth, or even a smaller fraction of 
a mare may be thus sold, some have many masters, 
and serious quarrels often arise from such joint pos- 
session. 

It was not without many a long look that I rode 
away from the fountain towards the western gate of 
the town and the street of Tombs, which I have de- 
scribed as the old road to Bare a. I was now on my 
return to Benghazi, not by the road I had taken in 
July, but with the intention, after visiting Nurdj, of 
following the coast by Dolmeita and Tokra. 



G 



CHAPTER X. 



Convent Agriculture. — A Soman Stronghold. — Splendid Olire 
Groves. — Water runs short. — The Mirage. — Dine with the Go- 
vernor. — The Site of Ancient Barca. — Quit the plain of Merdj. 

October 10//*. — The old road, with its deep-worn 
ruts, from time to time reappears among the under- 
wood, and its course is marked for a great distance 
from the city hy groups of broken sarcophagi and 
excavated tombs. In four hours and a half, pursuing 
a W.S.W. direction, we reached a beautiful hilly 
country, with fine old caroub trees and numerous 
ruins. Here is the chief Zavia, or convent of the 
Senoosy Marabuts, called Sidi Eafa'a ; it is still in 
course of erection, and is a stately building for the 
country. The neighbouring ruins supply the mate- 
rials for the building; and, by good luck, I arrived 
while the extensive foundations of a very large temple, 
which they were digging up to employ in building the 
convent chapel, were still traceable. The masonry of 
the substructures, consisting of passages or under- 



Chap. X. 



CONVENT AGRICULTURE. 



123 



ground chambers, was formed of very large stones, 
squared and cemented with remarkably white lime. 
The lintel of a doorway, of very good chiselling, and a 
part of a fluted pilaster, were all I could discover of 
the architecture. Its situation, in respect of its dis- 
tance from Cyrene, and the extent of its ruins, leave 
no doubt in my mind that here was the site of 
Balaerai and its great Temple of iEsculapius. Its 
position on the summit of a slight elevation is lovely ; 
the remains of many other buildings, some of them 
not insignificant, cover the ground all around. I 
should have expected to find a fountain of medicinal 
waters near a Temple of iEsculapius (no trace of 
which is to be found here), yet none such is men- 
tioned by old writers, nor could I hear of any place in 
this direction, or elsewhere at a similar distance from 
Cyrene, where such waters exist. 

On either side, the country here exhibited signs of 
more laborious agriculture than I had yet seen in any 
other part; the underwood had been in great part 
cleared away, and the fields were black with ashes of 
burned weeds and brushwood, spread over the ground 
as manure, preparatory to sowing. The secret of this 
unwonted industry is the possession of the country by 
a religious order who, here as elsewhere, spare no 
effort to turn the property which they have acquired 
(partly by purchase, but more largely by donations) 

. G 2 



124 WANDEEINGS IN NOBTH AFEICA. Chap. X. 

to good account. In this way they may exercise here 
the same beneficial influence over husbandry which, 
during the middle ages, the"religious orders exerted in 
Europe; they are also active in giving a sort of Bible- 
Society education (instruction in reading the Koran) 
to the children in the neighbourhood of their dwellings. 
Unfortunately, however, it is only in these points that 
they emulate the Christian institution to which I have 
compared them ; for with the elements of learning 
they instil into the youthful minds of their pupils 
feelings of hatred and contempt for the professors of 
every creed which differs from their own — a creed very 
alien from the practice of Christian charity. 

Two hours further on is a fountain with ruins around 
it, and on a hill opposite many tombs. The place is 
called Belandsh, and its waters fertilise some gardens 
which are cultivated by Arabs, who live in the nume- 
rous excavations of the neighbourhood. When I left 
Dema the grape season was long over ; in Grennah, 
on my return, not a cluster remained on the few vines 
grown by the Bedawin : here, I bought white grapes, 
with which the trellises were loaded, and which were 
not yet ripe. Herodotus speaks of the three climates 
of the Cyrenaica, in consequence of which the harvest 
is carried on during eight months of the year ; and it 
was interesting to meet with this practical confirmation 
of his remark. 



Chap. X. A ROMAN STONGHOLD. 125 

From Belandsh the road runs for many hours 
through a country thickly strewed with shapeless ruins 
and sarcophagi, the hill-sides heing almost everywhere 
burrowed by excavations. Just before reaching a 
spring called Maten Ma' as, two hours from the last, is 
a ruined castle, to which the people of the neighbour- 
hood have given the name of Kasr Djemal. It seems 
to have been originally a Eoman stronghold, added to 
or repaired in Saracenic times. Eiding in a N.W. 
direction from this place, along an ancient road, I 
reached in an hour and ten minutes (horse-pace), a fine 
old castle on a hill to the left. On a square base of 
rock, formed by an excavated ditch fourteen feet wide, 
rises a square tower, which, with the exception of one 
vaulted chamber, still entire, is filled with fallen 
rubbish. In addition to the ditch, very extensive out- 
works, which are still to be traced on all sides, formed 
its defences : it is now called Sirt Nawara. That it 
must have been a place of some importance may be 
conjectured, not only from its position, but also from 
the many tombs in its neighbourhood, and the care- 
fully-chiselled decorations of many of their facades. I 
here found that I had missed the road, which takes a 
turn more to the south, and, consequently, had to ride 
back to Maten Ma'as, and thence over a range of low 
hills, which afforded little shade, and were very hot, 
being screened, by a higher range to the north, from 



126 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. X. 

the sea-breezes. This road, however, led, after two 
hours' travelling, to a succession of the most beautiful 
scenes I ever beheld, even in this beautiful country. 
A steep ravine forms the descent from the high ground 
which we had now reached, surrounded on either side 
by lofty rocks, in some places perpendicular, while in 
others they slant sufficiently to allow an accumulation 
of mould on their slope. Down this the path winds 
over fallen rocks, among venerable olive trees and 
gigantic cypresses, which grow up among the debris 
in the bottom of the valleys, while the receding hills 
are thickly covered with junipers and olives. This 
valley, if cultivated, might produce annually an almost 
unlimited quantity of oil : it took me nearly three 
hours to ride through it. The trees are probably self- 
planted, and, doubtless, the descendants of those which 
supplied the old Cyrenian commerce with the oil for 
which it was so famous : they were covered with an 
abundance of fruit. No care is bestowed upon them; 
many are rather immense bushes than trees, and their 
valuable produce serves only as food for the goats, 
which eat the fruit greedily as it falls. In the hands 
of a speculator possessing capital, an enormous profit 
might no doubt be obtained in the course of three or 
four years, by the cultivation of these trees ; all they 
require is pruning, and to have the earth collected 
round their roots, in order to give a splendid harvest. 



Chap. X. SPLENDID OLIVE GEO YES. 127 

The trees are not the wild olive species, though their 
fruit is small. Not even in Italy have I seen a country 
apparently so well adapted to the cultivation of the 
olive ; but the uncertainty of tenure of property, the 
deplorable weakness of the Government, and the un- 
tamed savageness of the Arabs of the neighbourhood, 
would certainly render the speculation a hazardous one. 

The name of this lovely scene is Aggher bi Harou- 
beh. On a hill to the left, on emerging from the 
ravine, is seen the Gastle of Benigdem, the best pre- 
served of the old forts which are met with everywhere 
in the Cyrenaica. It is a rectangular oblong building, 
with two square towers slightly advancing from the 
line of the wall, in the centres of the longer sides. 
One of these towers is still in great part perfect, 
having three stories of windows. The second story 
is vaulted, and has on each side two windows 
looking outwards. The walls are built double, of 
stones carefully squared both within and without, 
leaving a space filled in with rubble, thus increasing 
the thickness and strength at little expense. I have 
remarked that the same method of building is employed 
in many of the old forts in this neighbourhood, and 
also further south. On the north side, a low arched 
gateway, commanded from the tower, seems to have 
been the only entrance to the fort, which was further 
defended by a low outwork, built of squared stones, 



128 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AERICA. Chap. X. 

still easily traced. The interior is now so filled with 
the ruins of fallen walls, that it is impossible to dis- 
tinguish its arrangement. Hence, I rode on through 
the hills to another old fortalice of very small dimen- 
sions, where I slept. The distance from Maten Ma'as 
to this place, for which I could learn no name, is eight 
hours of camel travelling. The tents were pitched 
among hills of great beauty, covered with wood, over- 
looking a rich plain, through which runs the lower 
road from Grennah to Merdj. This we followed the 
next day; and during ten hours of travelling, the 
country presented a succession of richly - wooded 
scenery, frequented by innumerable covies of part- 
ridges. This day, five hours after starting, I made a 
detour to the right through a long winding valley, 
which leads towards the coast, through the country of 
the Dirsah Arabs, but did not meet with any ruins of 
importance. The camel-drivers took advantage of my 
absence to journey on to a later hour than I usually 
travelled ; the process of pitching the tents and pre- 
paring dinner being very much impeded after sunset. 
They were, however, disappointed in their hopes of 
reaching water ; and we had now travelled two days 
without finding any. The skins had all been filled ; 
but, during the first day, with the ordinary recklessness 
of Arabs, they had drunk a large part of our provision, 
and there would have been none left for the evening, 



Chap. X. 



WATER, RUNS SHORT. 



129 



had not my servant taken possession of the last re- 
maining skin, so as to secure it for the evening meal. 
In consequence of this, there was great suffering from 
thirst among my followers. The Arabs here are not 
abstemious, for they drink water in enormous quantities 
whenever they can get it, and when they cannot thus 
indulge their thirst, they seem to suffer very much. 
My own rule in drinking is to take a cup of coffee in 
the middle of the day, rarely adding a small cup of 
water, flavoured with raki, to destroy any insects it 
may contain. I make a practice of not drinking at 
other times during the journey; and I do this both 
from rinding the advantage of such abstinence, and for 
the sake of example to the servants, in a country where 
water is sometimes so precious. The day following 
there was of course great haste to reach the wells, 
which the evening before, when I stopped them, the 
camel-drivers represented as close at hand. I rode on 
through an open country, anxious to obtain water for 
the horses, which had not drunk for two days; but it 
took three hours and a half to reach the Wady el 
Gharib, at the upper end of which are many wells. 
When at last I reached them, we had no means of 
drawing the water; and some Arabs, who were wa- 
tering their sheep there, absolutely refused, for love or 
money, according to their own expression, to supply 
us. They were only five in number; and I had great 

g 3 



130 



WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. X. 



difficulty in persuading my servant (though he had 
only the previous evening wounded his right hand so 
as to make it useless), not to take possession of the 
well hy force. This would have "been easy enough, 
but after my complaints against the marabut at Gren- 
nah, I was anxious to preserve a good character for 
peaceable conduct. It took the camels nearly an hour 
and a half longer to reach the wells ; and not doubting 
that, on seeing the number of the party, the Arabs 
would yield us a supply, at least enough for the horses, 
I possessed my soul in patience in the interval. When 
at last they came up, I acknowledge that, in my heart, 
I was not well pleased to see my people quietly submit 
to be refused accommodation by the Arabs, without 
taking forcible possession of their cord and bucket ; 
but, true to my system, I kept the Sultan's peace, and 
contented myself, when the caravan had moved on, with 
riding down to them, and assuring them that I should 
have them punished, having in the meantime found 
out their names. The Governor of Merdj, on my 
complaint, promised they should be sent for and 
punished; and to make sure of his having kept his 
word, I renewed my complaint, through the English 
Consul, to the Bey of Benghazi. These Arabs be- 
longed to the tribe of Abid, whom I have already men- 
tioned as notorious for their predatory habits and 
discourtesy to strangers. From the well we rode on 



Chap. X. 



THE MIRAGE. 



131 



for five hours, in hopes of reaching Merdj that evening ; 
but an hour after sunset, when we had climbed a steep 
wooded hill, we found that we were still only on the 
edge of the vast plain thus named. It was already 
dark ; on all sides a hundred fires marked the dwellings 
of the Bedawin, who encamp here in great numbers 
for the convenience of the wells, of which there are in 
all upwards of forty around the castle. I sent a camel 
for water, but it was midnight before it returned ; so 
that we were in some discomfort, no cooking having 
been possible, though I found an unhoped for con- 
solation in my nargila, in filling which a servant had 
stupidly used the last drop of our water. The next 
morning, starting early, it took the camels four hours 
to reach the Medina, as the part of the plain on which 
the newly-erected castle is built, is called. In the 
maps, two large lakes are marked as existing in this 
locality, and before us, immediately in front of the 
castle, lay an immense expanse of clear water, unruffled 
by a breath of air, and every object on its banks 
reflected in it, as if in a mirror. It receded as we 
approached, and at length disappeared altogether ; but 
on turning round, I saw my camels, which followed at 
a considerable distance, wading up to their knees in 
the magic fluid. I had often seen the mirage in the 
Desert, where it is of frequent occurrence, but the de- 
ception was much less real. Here, for some time, I 



132 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. X. 



had no suspicion that the lake, round which I contem- 
plated a long detour in the hot sun with no pleasant 
feelings, would vanish on coming nearer. These lakes, 
which make a formidable appearance on the map, 
really exist sometimes for years together; they owe 
their origin entirely to the autumnal or winter rains, 
and dry up after two or three seasons of drought, such 
as of the preceding years. On approaching the castle, 
in front of which he the greater number of the wells, 
the scene presented to us was the most primitively 
pastoral I had ever witnessed. Immense herds and 
flocks, collected in groups, covered a very large space, 
while boys and women were busily engaged in drawing 
water, which they poured into skins stretched on hoops, 
for the cattle to drink from. Many short trunks of 
columns are placed near each other triangularly, so as 
to support the edges of the hoops, while the skins 
form a basin. The sun was very hot, and the earth here 
is of a red colour ; and, though not yet midday, the 
air, from these causes, seemed to have that warm tone 
which we admire in some of Both's evening landscapes. 

I rode at once to the castle, after procuring water 
for my horses from one of the fair Eebeccas at the 
wells, and was very kindly received by the Kehia or 
Governor. The ill-lighted, cool council-room to 
which he conducted me, empty of everything but the 
divan at one end, was most refreshing after expo- 



Chap. X. 



DINE WITH THE GOVEENOE. 



133 



sure to the fiery heat of the plain. Dinner was almost 
immediately afterwards served, and I sat down with 
him, the commandant of the few soldiers stationed 
here, and half-a-dozen Arabs, whom he summoned by 
name from the door. When dinner had been dis- 
patched, the only term applicable to Arab eating, I 
remarked a custom which had on other occasions 
struck me. Of those who had dipped their hands in 
the same dishes with us, all went out after washing 
except my host, the commandant, and one of the 
Arabs, who was specially invited to stay : after their 
departure coffee was served. I remember having 
heard a story from one of the most spiritual of my 
friends, which is applicable to the case in point. Se- 
veral years ago he spent some time at one of the 
smaller German courts, where the number of the rules 
of etiquette is in the inverse ratio to the numbers of 
the population. For many days one of his neighbours 
at dinner — a most agreeable and well-informed man — 
regularly left the room when the roti was served, 
making a low bow in rising from his place. His 
departure did not at first attract my friend's attention, 
but as the same scene occurred daily, he at length 
turned to his other neighbour and asked him the 
meaning of it ; expecting to hear that the man had 
an aversion to roast meat, such as some people have 



134 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. X. 

to cats. The answer was simply, " Herr N. ist nicht 
bratenfahig ;" that is, Herr N. may sup his soup, and 
enjoy the entrees and releves, hut he is not well bom 
enough to partake of roast beef in this company. 
Thus any Arab may with propriety enjoy the Bey's 
good dinner, but he must not hope to drink his coffee 
after it. A similar custom seems once to have existed 
in England. In Shadwell's " Lancashire Witches," Sir 
Timothy says to his uncle, " What a murrain do we 
keep you for, but to sit at the lower end of the board 
at meals, rise, make a leg, and take away your plate at 
second course." 

The site of the castle, surrounded by many frag- 
ments of ancient buildings, is that of Barca, daughter 
and rival of Oyrene, and even under the Arab domi- 
nation (long after the parent city was a heap of ruins), 
a flourishing town. The ground is literally strewn 
with fragments of small columns, the ruins of the 
Saracenic city, and the line of its walls is still dis- 
tinctly traceable. The castle, which was only begun 
a year ago, on the site of the ancient citadel, is built 
of ancient materials dug up on the spot. Many capi- 
tals of columns, of debased Greek workmanship, and 
many entire columns, have been found in digging out 
materials for its construction, but nothing dating even 
as far back as the time of the Ptolemies. I found the 



Chap. X. THE SITE OF BAECA. 135 

base of a column, of white marble, lying among the 
rubbish, which had formerly been a cube, having on 
four of its sides Greek inscriptions. Judging from the 
form of the letters which remain, I should suppose 
them to be of about the first century of our era ; but it 
was not possible to decipher the meaning of the in- 
scription, as each line was more than half effaced on 
the side which has been turned downwards, and only 
single letters of each line remained on two other sides. 
In its present condition it may be of the fourth or 
fifth century. Cufic inscriptions are not unfrequently 
discovered here ; one, lately found, had been placed 
above the door of the council-room, but was so thickly 
whitewashed as to be quite illegible. Two capitals of 
columns, in white marble, with the Moslem profession 
of faith beautifully inscribed round each in raised 
flowered letters, had just been built into the sides of 
the minbar of a mosque which the Kehia is building, 
one of the capitals being turned upside down. He 
begged me to go to see the progress of the work, to 
assure him, by means of the compass, if the Kibleh 
was rightly placed, and this gave me an opportunity of 
seeing the simple, or rather rude, fashion in which the 
light arches are thrown from pillar to pillar. There 
was no scaffolding used beyond two planks for the 
mason to stand on, neither was there any wooden 



136 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. X. 

centering, but the stones, cut to the proper shape, 
were, one after another, handed up to the mason, who 
secured them in their places with cement ; a few loose 
stones were made to support them : the arch being 
thus gradually built up from each side, the keystone 
was at last added, and then the planks were imme- 
diately removed, the arch being considered solid 
enough to require no further care. The arches were 
pointed, and each composed of eleven or thirteen 
stones. In another building, intended for an oil- 
press, I found a large circular arch, twenty feet in 
width, in process of erection. Here a long board had 
been run across the breadth of the building; in its 
centre a nail served as a pivot for a long strip of 
pointed wood, by which the mason decided the posi- 
tion of each stone as he placed it. There were several 
small houses in progress, destined to form the nucleus 
of a town, which the Kehia hopes to see rebuilt. This 
was the only place in the whole country where I had 
seen anything like enterprise. The Kehia is a clever 
man, and, in conjunction with the Bey of Benghazi, 
whose dependant he is, he had undertaken these works 
in hopes of making a profitable speculation out of the 
oi] of the uncultivated olive trees in the neighbourhood. 
It was with a sincere wish for his success, which cannot 
fail to be followed by increased industry and gradual 



Chap. X. QUIT THE PLAIN OF ME ED J. 137 

civilisation of the district, that I took leave of him, 
having spent two days in the Medina, during both of 
which the hot south wind had blown with great force, 
raising clouds of red dust. It was the first time I had 
experienced this wind in the Cyrenaica. 



CHAPTER XI. 



Tomb of a Ptolemy. — Unequal Taxation. — What a Wife costs. — 
Ruins of Tolmeta. — Wall around Tancra. — Good State of the 
Ruins. — The Rains, — Arab Tents. — Return to Benghazi. 

October 16th, — Eight glad to escape the furnace-like 
blasts which swept, stifling, over the plain of Merdj, I 
started, though late in the afternoon, on the way to 
Tolmeta. The camel drivers, who had been furnished 
to me at Grennah by Abou Bekr, in addition to their 
ignorance of the road, proved themselves the most 
unmanageable beings I had yet met with; having 
complained of them to the Kehia, he gave them an 
admonition, and also provided me with an Arab of 
the country, a soi-disant relation, to conduct me on 
my way. 

It took three hours in a north-east direction to reach 
the edge of the plain, when, night coming on, I en- 
camped, and continued the journey the following 
morning. There are two ravines which lead towards 
Tolmeta, of which we took the one to the west, called 



Chap. XT. TOMB OF A PTOLEMY. 139 

Wady Shebbah ; this route is rather the longer of the 
two, but affords an easy descent, which, to travellers 
with heavily-laden camels, is a consideration of no 
little moment. The other descent was called by my 
conductor Wady Hambes, or Hambesh. It is de- 
scribed by Beechey as very beautiful, and, being more 
difficult, its scenery is probably grander than that of 
the route followed by me, which is rather a pass than a 
ravine, running over long low hills until it gradually 
reaches the level of the sea. On the shore, nearly 
opposite its debouche, is a group of rocks, and among 
them a well with brackish water, where we found many 
goats, with their attendants. From this, riding east- 
ward, we came to another well, and then to a third in 
the ruins of a fortalice, which contains the only sweet 
water in the neighbourhood. Having filled our water- 
bottles, we went on to a large square monument, sup- 
posed to be the tomb of one of the Ptolemies who 
reigned in this country ; the monument is visible to a 
great distance out at sea. Built on a square base of 
rock, it presents a noble mass, and has kindled the 
enthusiasm of former visitors ; but, to my eye, except- 
ing for its greater dimensions, it seemed in architec- 
tural beauty inferior to many I have seen elsewhere in 
this country. The triangular entrance, on the side 
opposite to the hills, is remarkable from its resem- 
blance to that of the Great Pyramid. Near this are 



340 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XL 

many large excavated tombs, one of which is remark- 
able, from the fact that the rock out of which it is 
fashioned has been cut away all round, and thus a 
monolithic monument, in the truest sense, produced. 
It took seven and a half hours in all fromMerdj to 
this point, where I stayed for upwards of an hour, in 
the useful, or at least necessary, employment of bar- 
gaining for sheep, a flock of which was drinking at a 
pool in front of the large tower. All bargains are 
difficult negotiations in this country, the Arabs often 
refusing to sell at a price less than double the market 
value of their merchandise : they are well acquainted 
with the laudable custom of making strangers pay 
their way. The price of sheep appeared to have gra- 
dually risen since I came into the country ; the first I 
bought cost me about five shillings, and those I 
bought here more than double that sum. For a party 
of six people I found that, with economy, a sheep 
w r ould last three days, if eked out with a not inconsi- 
derable supply of rice and biscuits for the Arabs, who 
eat voraciously. 

With my new friend, Abd-el-Kader Waled Ali, I 
had much curious conversation, as I found him more 
communicative than the greater part of his country- 
men. He is of the wealthier class, and lives in the 
country beyond Labiar. He complained, and I believe 
with justice (for every one I have spoken with on the 



Chap. XI. UNEQUAL TAXATION. 141 

subject confirmed what he said), of the unequal man- 
ner in which the taxes are levied, the miri for each 
naga varying in different tribes from five to six hun- 
dred piastres. The naga, like the pound sterling, is 
an imaginary unit, consisting of ten camels, or twenty 
oxen, or a hundred sheep or goats. Each tribe pays 
tribute for a certain number of nagas, according to 
a census made some 150 years ago; the Sheikh 
being responsible for its partition among the mem- 
bers of his tribe, and its collection. It is easy to 
understand that with such a system the tax falls very 
heavily on those tribes which from war or other causes 
have sunk in importance in this lapse of time ; whilst, 
on the other hand, those which have grown wealthy 
pay an insignificant sum : thus a tribe rated at a hun- 
dred nagas, and which has now only twenty, pays for 
each naga five times the sum it was originally taxed 
at ; while those whose wealth has increased from a 
hundred to a thousand, pay for each only a fiftieth 
part of what their less fortunate neighbours are 
charged. Ignorant in book learning, the Arabs, aided 
by their rosaries, are no mean proficients in arithmetic ; 
and their applications for redress are as incessant as 
fruitless. From what I have seen of the country a 
spirit of discontent is universal — the Arabs regret 
their old independent pasha ; and I think the arrival 
of any Government, Moslem or even Christian — so 



142 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XI. 

only not the Sultan's — would be hailed with general 
satisfaction. 

Abd-ei-Kader is married, and I took down his ac- 
count of the price he paid for his wife. To her father 
he gave thirteen sheep, valued at two dollars and a 
half each, with a hundred dollars in cash; and to 
the lady herself, a pair of silver bracelets (souar or 
debalg), weighing thirty-five dollars, dress-stuffs to 
the same amount, furniture, carpets, &c, to the value 
of fifty dollars; these, with some other expenses, 
made the cost of his wedding amount in all to three 
hundred dollars. He confirmed to me the truth of 
an Arab custom, which I had before heard of from 
others, that of giving to the mother, of the bride a 
sum varying from a hundred to five hundred piastres, 
as the price of the milk with which she had suckled 
her daughter. The sheep and the money are not 
returned in any shape, as, on her father's death, his 
wife's brother succeeds to them, and on his death 
the next male heir. " Well," I said, " you will ac- 
knowledge that here you literally buy your wife ? " — 
to which he retorted, " Of course we do ; while in 
Europe it is the wife who buys her husband ; we are 
up to that;" and he chuckled, and seemed to think he 
had paid me off with interest. 

After passing the pools, where I had stayed so long, 
we came in sight of the line of the fortifications, which 



Chap. XI. 



EUINS OF TOLMETA. 



143 



are now almost buried in sand, and of one of the city 
gates, still an imposing mass. The plain where Tol- 
meta . stood did not become visible until we had 
crossed the low ridge formed by the fallen walls. 
Great was the disappointment I experienced on my 
first view of the city, and greater became my disap- 
pointment the more I saw of it. Three columns 
standing over large covered cisterns, and two smaller 
ones not far distant, the ruined apse of a Christian 
church (probably of the fourth century), catch the 
eye ; but the general impression of the entire surface 
is that of a huge piece of new macadamisation, so 
thickly is the ground strewed with small fragments. 
The celebrated barracks have been lately despoiled, 
by truly Vandalic hands, of the curious inscription 
which rendered the building so interesting, and to 
obtain which the greater part of the front facing the 
sea has been overthrown. The destruction of it seems 
to have been as wanton as the labour of it must have 
been great, the architecture being of the most solid 
description. I was told that in attempting their 
removal one of the slabs was so broken that the 
author of this devastation left it lying on the ground ; 
and that after an interval of two or three years, when 
he had learnt in Paris that an inscription, of which a 
third part is wanting, is worthless, he sent for the 
remaining fragments, which were already illegible. 



144 WANDE KINGS IN NORTH AFKICA. Chap. XL 

If those employed were incapable of taking an accu- 
rate copy of the inscription, one would suppose that 
they might at least have made a cast of it, and at less 
expense, and thus have left the only monument worth 
visiting in Ptolemais still retaining its external form, 
and the disposition of its interior still traceable, and 
unchoked by newly-made ruins. The three Ionic 
columns, which have been described as dating from 
the earliest times and of remarkable purity, seemed to 
me of a late epoch, when not a tradition of true 
beauty remained ; they are clumsy, and badly chisel- 
led, nor did I see in the whole space any fragments 
of sculpture or architecture in a good style of art. 
There are ten vaulted buildings, and a very large 
rectangle rising only a few feet above the soil, whose 
purpose cannot even be guessed at ; scanty remains of 
a theatre, the outlines of an amphitheatre, formed in 
a quarry, having no feature of interest, complete the 
catalogue of the ruins within the town. The fortifi- 
cations towards the sea, consisting of a series of forts, 
are well preserved, though nearly buried in sand ; but 
the most conspicuous object is the gateway I have 
already mentioned, whose two flank towers are still 
nearly perfect. On the stones of which these are 
built are many inscriptions, whose irregularity would 
lead one to the idea that they are of very recent date, 
or even to fancy them the work of industrious idlers, 



Chap. XI. 



LEAVE TOLMETA. 



145 



bent upon thus immortalising their names. Fox's 
and many other names, carved with a knife on the 
old walls at Eton, are far better specimens of cali- 
graphy. More interesting than these are the quarry- 
marks, many of them in Barbary characters, which 
are found here, as well as on one of the forts on the 
sea-wall. 

On the second day of my stay here the clouds 
gathered thick towards sunset, whereupon soon fol- 
lowed a storm of lightning and rain, such as I have 
seldom witnessed. The autumnal rains had com- 
menced, and it was evident that my proper course was 
a speedy return to Benghazi, as when it does rain 
here it continues, almost without intermission, for 
many days, and with a frantic violence which no tents 
can withstand. I had been too much disappointed 
with the remains of Tolmeta to regret having to 
shorten my stay here ; and when the rain ceased the 
next morning, or only continued in fitful showers, I 
had the wet tents and baggage placed on the camels, 
and took my departure for Tancra, the ancient Ten- 
chira. It was, however, so late before a start could 
be made, that at sunset we were still at no great 
distance from the ruins, and finding a good place for 
encamping near some wells, and fields sown with izra, 
I stopped there. The route is along the sea- shore, 
through a wide plain covered with briars and baturne 

H 



146 WANDERINGS- IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XL 

bushes, showing only in very few places slight marks 
of cultivation. A soft warm wind, like that of a spring 
morning, made the ride through the clean-washed 
underwood delightful, and I fancied I could already 
see signs of fresh vegetation in the briars. It took, in 
all, nine hours and a half to reach Tancra from Dol- 
meita. Near the old town are many patches of cul- 
tivated ground, producing vegetables and fruit, the 
property of Arab families, who inhabit many of the 
excavated tombs in the quarries on either side of the 
town. 

The first view of Tancra rather disappointed me. 
So much has been written about the perfect state of the 
walls, that I arrived there with the expectation of 
finding them more perfect than the walls of either 
Borne or Constantinople : and what, indeed, have these 
cities, amidst all their remains of bygone days, to offer 
of more interest than their venerable walls, which, after 
withstanding unnumbered hostile attacks, still retain 
so much of their historical significance ? The circuit 
of the walls of Tenchira is on three sides entire ; the 
disposition of the towers is well marked, and the places 
of the gates maybe conjectured: in many parts the 
wall is not more than two or three feet high, in some it 
is reduced to a mere heap of stones, and in none does 
it exceed fourteen or fifteen feet. At the eastern ex- 
tremity, a quarry has been taken advantage of, to add 



Chap. XI. WALLS AROUND TANCRA. 147 

strength to the wall hy heing made to serve as a ditch ; 
on the ground above there are remains of a strong 
fortalice. Within these is another quarry, which serves 
to isolate the fortress — a narrow ledge of rock, along 
which the wall ran, alone affording access to it ; this, 
with a third parallel to the sea, seems to have com- 
pleted this curious defensive structure, for such I 
suppose it may he considered. The walls are, doubt- 
less, interesting to the military antiquarian, exhibiting, 
as they do very perfectly, the system of fortification 
used at the time of their reconstruction or repair by 
order of Justinian ; but they disappoint the traveller in 
search of the artistic or the picturesque, who had 
hoped to find in Greek or Eoman style what Alatri 
presents in the Cyclopean. The ill- carved inscriptions 
with which they are covered — mere records of names 
which have evidently belonged to other buildings, and 
many of them now turned upside down — possess no 
kind of interest ; and I am inclined to think that the 
walls of Apollonia, if cleared of their rubbish, would be 
found more perfect, as well as more picturesque. But 
if disappointed with the exterior of the town, I was 
equally surprised by finding the contents of the inte- 
rior more interesting than anything I had met with 
in the Cyrenaica ; and then I had to regret that I 
had allowed myself to be so long enchained by the 
delightful climate of the hills, as to render a long stay 

H 2 



148 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XI. 

in Tancra impossible on account of the rains, which 
this year set in nearly a month earlier than usual. 
The town, indeed, contains no monuments of any great 
elevation, which accounts for the little attention which 
seems to have been bestowed on Tancra by pre- 
vious travellers ; at the season when they visited it 
everything must have been hidden by the long grass ; 
but when the ground is bare of vegetation, as at my 
visit, many lines of streets become as distinctly trace- 
able as those of Pompeii, and even the ground plans of 
the houses which bordered them. Among the larger 
buildings, are to be remarked the ruins of a church in 
the west of the city, and those of a large quadrangle, 
with a well-preserved reservoir within its precincts, 
which, from its similarity to the hapless barracks at 
Dolmeita, must have had a similar purpose. Further 
eastward, is a striking edifice bearing inscriptions, 
which may have been a temple or a basilica, but its 
interior is so completely filled with rubbish, that its 
plan cannot be distinguished. No trace of a theatre, 
amphitheatre, or stadium is visible ; so that the inha- 
bitants of Tenchira must, in all probability, have had 
the misfortune to be destitute of any place of public 
amusement. I have remarked with surprise in other 
parts of the Pentapolis, as well as here, the absence of 
any well-defined ruins of public baths; though I can- 
not suppose that any town, even of small size, was in 



Chap. XL GOOD CONDITION OF THE EUINS. 149 

Eoman times destitute of so necessary and favourite a 
luxury. The only hypothesis which presents itself to 
me as explanatory of this, is the fact, that these towns, 
as we see them at the present day, belong to the later 
empire, during whose existence the opposition shown 
by the bishops and clergy to the delicacy of the bath 
{lalneorum delicice) may, in some places, have suc- 
ceeded in suppressing its use. No place in this 
country promises a more abundant harvest to the 
excavator than this : medals must be buried in great 
quantities, and perhaps other articles of value, among 
its ruins ; and the tombs sunk in the rocks all around 
are, with those of Benghazi, the only ones in the 
country that seem to have escaped desecration. All 
those which were excavated in the quarries have been 
long since rifled ; and even those have not escaped 
which are now sanded up, as was recently proved, to 
his great disappointment, by an Arab antiquarian, who, 
no doubt, having read, adopted Beechey's suggestion, 
and employed money, men, and much time, in clearing 
one of those nearest to the town, on the west side. 
Beechey, judging from their situation, had conjectured 
that these tombs were the most ancient ; and that, as 
they had probably been early sanded up, they would 
offer a good chance of rewarding researches. The 
event proved that his opinion was incorrect, as the 
tomb, a large square cavern, was empty of everything 



150 "WANDE KINGS IN NOKTH AEKICA. Chap. XI. 

"but sand ; above the door of it is a cross in a circle, 
with the letters 10 . XC. There are tombs cut like 
troughs on the summits of the rocks on -which the 
quarries are sunk, which yield great numbers of vases, 
but all that were found, whilst I was there, were of 
very coarse manufacture. I saw in the hands of an 
Arab a small fragment of a large and very finely- 
painted urn of the latest style, and although such are 
not, of course, common, I believe they are occasionally 
found. I had intended to spend some days here, and 
to open a large number of tombs, whose position I had 
conjectured from the hollow sound the ground above 
gave out when struck ; but the rains had now set in, 
descending every night in torrents, and frequently 
lasting all day; so that no working was possible, and 
in the small tents a dry spot could not be preserved. 
The discomfort produced by the rain, however, was 
even exceeded by the destruction it brought to books 
and instruments ; I therefore left Tan era, and firmly 
resolved that my first purchase in Benghazi should be 
one of the hair tents of the Arabs, which, though not 
quite impervious to rain, are yet the best protection 
one can have against it. As used in this country, they 
are generally about eighteen feet long, by fifteen broad, 
the roof formed of long stripes of' coarse hair-cloth 
woven by the women. The roof is sometimes made in 
white for winter use ; but more generally it is of a brown, 



Chap. XL THE RAINS.— HAIR TENTS. 151 

earthy colour, with stripes of black and white. No 
cutting out or other fashioning is necessary, for the 
cloth, being sufficiently elastic, accommodates itself to 
the slope of the roof. Two poles, three feet apart, 
support the tent, giving in the centre a height of about 
seven feet, while the corners and edges are stretched by 
cords, and supported by slender spars, at about half 
this height from the ground. Three sides are closed 
by stripes of the same stuff, rudely attached to the 
roof by wooden pins, the fourth — that turned to lee- 
ward — being left open. In summer, the sides are 
removed, and branches are used to replace them, while, 
in general, an older roof is substituted for the better 
one used in winter. With a little management, they 
might be made comfortable enough, and, with the ex- 
ception of the great weight of the hair- cloth of which 
they are formed, they would be very convenient for 
travelling, as they are easily set up, are exposed to no 
accidents which could not be remedied on the spot, 
and are less liable than cotton tents to rot when 
packed up wet. Against this evil I have found 
M'Gregor's anti-dry-rot preparation of no use. I have 
one tent of prepared, and one of unprepared canvas, 
and have yet found no difference in the condition of 
their materials. 

On the third day after my arrival in Tancra, I 
reluctantly pursued my journey to Benghazi. In an 



152 WANDEKINGS IN NOKTH AEKICA. Chap. XI. 

hour and a quarter we reached Bon Jera'a, which has 
many gardens and wells. An hour and a half further 
on lies Birsis, with its few insignificant ruins and its 
many wells; it afforded one of the pleasantest au- 
tumnal scenes I had "beheld for a long time : whole 
villages of tents in quick succession, fields everywhere 
separated hy well-made inclosures, and the whole land- 
scape animated hy a busy industry, in which all ages 
and sexes seemed equally to join. This is the only 
part of the Pentapolis which has the appearance of 
"being inhabited. The damp, warm air of the morning 
communicated a sensation of enjoyment to the frame; 
and the unwonted life of the scene recalled more 
civilised lands to my mind. 

The appearance of the country soon, however, 
changed; and we entered upon a tract most dreary 
and desolate. The path winds further inland, being 
separated from the sea by an extensive marsh, along 
the edge of which it runs at the foot of low rocks ; the 
dark, stunted vegetation interspersed among the stony 
wastes gave an air of indescribable melancholy to the 
landscape. A journey of six hours and a half through 
this dull flat brought us to Sidi Suaiken, a marabut 
on an eminence ; beyond this the country becomes 
more wooded, and green meadows appear, in one of 
which I encamped. There is a place of the name of 
Handouleh, consisting of a few gardens and rich 



Chap. XI. 



KETUKN TO BENGHAZI. 



153 



pastures, which lies about an hour and a half from the 
marabut ; further on to the right is the large salt lake 
of Ez-zajana, a favourite resort of the Benghazini in 
their excursions. Near here are extensive ruins, 
showing only the ground plan of many buildings, 
which, from the name, are supposed to mark the site 
of Adrianopolis. Soon after this the road enters the 
dried sandy bed of the salt lake, which, filled by the 
winter gales from the sea, gradually evaporates in the 
course of the summer. At length, we again reached 
Benghazi, after an absence of rather more than three 
months. 



H 3 



CHAPTEE XII. 



What a Consul should be. — Turkish Oppression. — Official Cor- 
ruption. — Universal Yenality. — The Moslem hates the Christian. 

On arriving in Benghazi I found a house prepared for 
me, by the kindness of one of my friends, who gave 
up to me the only waterproof rooms which, I believe, 
exist in the town. The sensation of sleeping within 
walls, after three months spent under canvas, was not 
the less agreeable from the circumstance that the rain 
poured down in torrents, and only ceased for short 
intervals during my ten days' stay. The second day 
after my arrival there fell a deluge of rain, the effect 
of which was to wash down some thirty houses, while 
there was not perhaps one in the place which had not 
suffered more or less. This is owing to the houses 
being built with mud instead of lime, which might be 
had at a very small cost. In the Frank quarter some 
new houses were in process of building, and not being 
roofed in, were more liable to suffer than finished 



Chap. XII. WHAT A CONSUL SHOULD BE. 



155 



buildings. As I passed them the next day their inte 
rior literally presented mere heaps of ruins. Year 
after year the same devastation is produced by the 
same cause ; the flat roofs, formed, as they are, of 
mats laid over beams, with a heavy superstructure of 
sea- weeds and mud, are never waterproof ; yet such is 
the apathy, even of the European residents, that they 
make no attempt to secure dry quarters for the winter. 
One would think from their conduct that it had never 
rained here before, aud that the visitation, instead of 
being as regular as the almanack, had taken all the 
world by surprise. In one house I found workmen 
repairing fallen walls; in another, I heard that the 
whole family had to sleep on the bales in the ware- 
house, which admitted the water in fewer places than 
the other rooms. The streets were in many places 
impassable from the ruins ; and many houses were 
literally melted away, the beams and stones remaining 
imbedded in huge puddles of mud. It sometimes 
occurs, when the rains are more than- usually heavy, 
that the houses are in so menacing a state that the 
whole town takes refuge in tents, where, though the 
ground be damp, there are certainly no walls which 
threaten to overwhelm them. 

I had the pleasure of finding the newly- appointed 
English Vice- Consul, Mr. Werry, a gentleman well 



156 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XII. 

known to our officers who served in the Syrian expe- 
dition. I was glad to offer him personally my thanks 
for the ready politeness with which he had taken 
measures to insure my safety while in the interior. 
Though he had only heen two months in Benghazi, 
he had already secured the good-will and confidence 
of the British subjects for whose interest he is placed 
there, as well as the respect of the Turkish authorities. 
During the ten days I stayed in Benghazi he gave me 
frequent opportunities of increasing my debt of grati- 
tude to him. I regretted to leave behind me, in so 
dreary an exile, one whose official experience, whose 
activity, and familiar knowledge of all the Oriental 
languages, would enable him to render essential ser- 
vices to his Government in places of more importance. 
I do not by this mean to insinuate that the presence 
of a British Consul in Benghazi is of little utility, 
although the number of Europeans (they are nearly 
all British subjects) be very small. Unconnected with 
trade, our Yice-Consul holds an independent position, 
which those of other nations, fettered by their per- 
sonal interests, cannot attain, and he is thus frequently 
able, in cases of gross injustice affecting the natives, 
to exercise a salutary influence with the governor. 
His house is the ready refuge of the ill-used slave and 
the oppressed Arab, and his exertions in their behalf, 



Chap. XII. 



TUEKISH OPPEESSION. 



157 



rarely unavailing for them, give a prestige to the name 
of Englishman, of which I more than once experienced 
the value. 

This portion of the pachalic of Tripoli, in which I 
passed nearly six months, is, like so many countries 
belonging to the Turkish Empire, most bountifully 
endowed by nature with every source of wealth. 
Under former rulers it was flourishing and populous, 
but it has now become a waste; its scanty inhabit- 
ants are sunk in hopeless barbarism, and even their 
poverty is no defence against the grasping avarice of 
their governor — " Inter continuas rapinas, perpetuo 
inops." I do not accuse the present Sultan or 
ministers in Constantinople, individually, of the ty- 
ranny and ignorance which render his rule a curse 
wherever it is acknowledged; but — after seeing the 
fields of Eoumelia lying waste to the very gates of 
his residence, the cities of Asia Minor depopulated, 
its mineral wealth a sealed treasure, even the Arab 
glories of Syria faded, the palaces of Damascus crum- 
bling, and its marts deserted — the traveller cannot but 
long to see a government changed whose oppression 
is less mischievous than its neglects, and which tacitly 
permits wrongs greater than those which it sanctions.* 
Well has it been said, that where the hoof of a Turkish 



* Johan. von Miiller. 



158 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XII. 

horse has touched the ground, there the grass grows 
not. 

During the last twenty-five years, since the fall of 
the Janissaries (which seemed to strengthen the cen- 
tral government while it weakened the empire), there 
has been much law-making, and many abuses have been 
abolished, as far as edicts can abolish deeply-rooted 
customs; but the old spirit still breathes in the new 
regime, and injustice and oppression are as frequent 
under the present Sultan as under his predecessors. 
It is, indeed, no longer a matter of indifference to the 
Grand Yizier, "whether the dog devours the swine or 
the swine the dog." A wholesome fear of European 
opinion has succeeded to undisguised contempt; but 
the Turk of the people is still in his own eyes the 
first of human beings ; his Sultan is still the suzerain 
before whom all kings bow, and at whose orders the 
French and English krals send their fleets and troops 
to chastise the rebellious Egyptian or Muscovite ; and 
in the remoter provinces, which are beyond the im- 
mediate eye of the Elehi Beys, as they call the foreign 
ambassadors, the old system of peculation and robbery 
exists in full force. 

Much has been written in praise of the new organi- 
sation of the Turkish Government, and the Tanzimat, 
as the regulations for the service are called ; but the 
good which this contains is for the most part evaded 



Chap. XII. OFFICIAL CORRUPTION. 



159 



or neglected. The most real result of the reform has 
been to introduce a number of new functionaries, or, 
in other words, to increase the points of contact be- 
tween the governors and the governed, whereby more 
frequent opportunities of peculation are given to the 
former. The sanitary regulations, so ridiculous in the 
way they are enforced and the way they are neglected, 
are one instance of this ; another is the prohibition of 
presents from inferiors to superiors, which all employes 
take an oath to observe ; yet it would not be easy to 
find ten per cent, of the higher officers who are insen- 
sible to, or unwilling to accept such an argument. In 
trifling things they are, of course, careful to wear the 
mask of austere virtue, as Izzet Pacha, the Governor 
of Tripoli, lately recalled on the complaints of the 
French Government, showed, when he was here in 
summer. A merchant of the place sent him a basket 
of grapes, when they were still scarce, and he returned 
them, saying, that, according to his oath, he must 
either pay for or refuse them. Yet this is the man 
who, after keeping an Arab sheikh in prison for many 
months, released him on receiving 150,000 piastres, 
about £1500 ; and whose sons, youths of eighteen and 
twenty years, established in their father's pachalic a 
trade in all the produce of the country, which amounted 
to a virtual monopoly. The European merchants sent 
a remonstrance on this subject to Constantinople, and 



160 



WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XII. 



they received an answer, in the advancement of the 
elder of these enterprising young tradesmen to the 
dignity of Mirabi, or pacha of one tail. 

After the last harvest the cultivators of the soil 
complained that the tithe in kind due to Government 
was taken in such a way as to amount to nearly one- 
half of the entire produce. This had "been contrived 
hy Izzet Pacha's son and some of the local authori- 
ties; the tenth only being carried to the public account, 
and the remainder divided among themselves. Many 
representations to this effect were made to the French 
consular agent, who, after obtaining satisfactory 
evidence of their truth, reported the case to his supe- 
rior in Tripoli. Not long afterwards, on some dispute 
with the Pacha, the Consul brought this up as a proof 
of the malversation of the subordinates, on which the 
other pretended great indignation, and insisted that he 
and the Consul should send to Benghazi for informa- 
tion. The books were, of course, in good order; the 
witnesses, on whose testimony the Consul had relied, 
were by threats reduced *to silence ; the charge could 
not be substantiated (the Bey who was judge being 
himself the chief delinquent) ; and the upshot of the 
inquiry was, that the Vice-Consul had to make apolo- 
gies for the slander, while he and every Frank in the 
place knew the truth of the accusation, and could point 
out the magazines where the grain thus extorted was 



Chap. XII. UNIVERSAL VENALITY. 161 

deposited. Many weeks had not passed after this 
when ships belonging to the Pacha's son arrived in 
the port, and openly loaded with this very corn on his 
account 

When a pacha acts thus, we cannot wonder if his 
subordinates imitate so good an example ; and the 
director of the customs may be praised for the honesty 
which consigns about three-fourths of their produce to 
the treasury. An Arab said to me one day, on this 
subject, " The Pacha eats, the Bey eats, and the 
Gumruckdjy (director of customs) eats," each buying 
his superior's silence with a share of his own pecu- 
lations ; the friends who protect his interests at Con- 
stantinople coming in for their share of the pacha's 
profits. A Turk is, in fact, capable of learning many 
things; he may be civilise — a Frank word, now 
adopted in Turkish; he may cease to be what La 
Jeune Turquie calls a fanatic ; he will indulge in deep 
potations, or abstain from fasting in Eamadhan ; but 
he will never learn not to eat (Italice magnate) when 
he can. His appetite and digestion, in this sense, are 
truly ostrich-like. On inquiring into the truth of 
the Bey's statement that there are 1200 houses 
Benghazi, I learned that there are, in fact, 1400 f 
the two hundred which are suppressed in the official 
account being "eaten" by the Bey and the Sheikh-el- 
belid. 



162 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XII. 

An amusing instance of the ruses to which a scru- 
pulous man, who has the fear of his oath before his 
eyes, will resort, was related to me by one who was in 
the town at the time it occurred. An Armenian ad- 
dressed himself to a Pacha in Anadoly, for the decision 
of a lawsuit in his favour ; and, after stating his case, 
produced a bag well filled with the usual arguments, 
which he offered to his Excellency. On this the great 
man, who had listened to his statement with the 
blandest smiles, drew himself up, frowning in anger, 
and. only answered, "Infidel, be off!" The poor Ar- 
menian, astonished at the reception of his well-meant 
offering, begged and prayed, and seemed to weigh the 
bag in his hands, that the Pacha might see how heavy 
it was — all Spanish dollars ; but the only answer he 
obtained was a fresh order to be off, with the surly 
addition, ff He is an infidel who gives, and an infidel 
who takes" — disobedience to the Sultan's laws being 
rebellion, and rebellion, according to Turkish doctrine, 
infidelity. Disappointed and crest-fallen, the poor 
Armenian withdrew from the presence, and was not 
a little surprised to find himself the object of the con- 
gratulations of the attendants and cavasses in the ante- 
room. " It is useless," he said, " to ask me for 
backshish; for the Pacha has rejected my suit, and 
that, too, with hard words." " What answer is this ? " 
said they; "did you not hear his words — ( the infidel 



Chap, XII. THE MOSLEM HATES THE CHEISTIAN. 163 

gives and the infidel takes V Go to the steward ; is 
not he also an Armenian ? " 

One of the greatest blots on the Turkish constitution 
has not heen touched by the Tanzimat : it is that pro- 
vision of the Moslem law which excludes the reception 
of evidence given by persons of other religions against 
a Moslem. Twenty witnesses may depose to the mur- 
der of a Christian or Jew by a Turk ; but, as was too 
clearly shown in the case of Sir Lawrence Jones, if 
there be not among them at least two Moslemin, their 
testimony is unavailing ; while to obtain Moslem 
witnesses to prove an outrage on a Christian is im-^ 
possible.* An Arab was wantonly beating a Maltese 
boy, a few days ago, in the bazaar, when a respectable 
Moslem came to his assistance ; a third then came up, 
and apostrophised the boy's defender, saying, <& Are 
you a Moslem ? and do you take the part of a Christian 
against a believer ?" He spoke what all the spectators 
felt. Until this odious distinction be abolished, there 
can be no security either for the life or property of 
Christian rayahs or foreigners, excepting in the 
energy and privileges of the consuls ; and the repre- 
sentatives of the great powers seem at present disposed 
to yield the greater part of their own rights and the 

* Since writing this 1 have learned that a recent decree gives 
to the evidence of Christians the same force as that of a Moslem. 



164 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XII. 

immunities of their fellow-subjects. These were wisely 
considered essential to the welfare or consideration of 
foreigners among a people who, though little less than 
barbarians, look with the most profound contempt 
upon a Frank ; and those who renounce their enjoy- 
ment are, I fear, too precipitate in their favourable 
judgment of the real state of the Turkish Empire. 

I cannot close my notes of the Cyrenaica without 
adding that I spent there (occasional annoyances ex- 
cepted) some most pleasant months ; I came to the 
country an invalid, and was exceedingly unwell when 
I started for Grennah ; but its pure air and lovely 
scenery restored me to perfect health. For those who 
seek summer quarters in the Mediterranean, I again 
repeat to them my former advice, to choose the plea- 
sant solitudes of Cyrene in preference to the Syrian 
hills, where so much sickness and mortality prevail. 
I have been many times in the Lebanon, and the rich 
beauty of Damascus has greater charms for me than 
that of any city I have seen ; but, still, I have never 
been there without witnessing or feeling the effects of 
the pestilential air, which, every autumn, produces fatal 
fevers and dysenteries. Even in quitting its shores the 
evil spirit seems to pursue its victims ; and I have seen 
more than one friend seized with the deadly Syrian 
fever weeks after he had reached a healthier climate. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Benghazi to Angila. — Corn Stores. — Cachettes. — Buins near El- 
Farsy. — Bemarkable Fortress. — Horrors of the Slave Trade. — 
England should forbid it. — Herds of Gazelles. — Bruce. — Eesam. 
— Oasis of Angila. 

Nove?nher 4,th. — After many pour parlers with a 
caravan of Majabra (inhabitants of Jalo), who had 
come to Benghazi to sell their dates, and after making 
one or two false starts, I at length got under weigh 
for Angila. I was desirous of taking with me some 
hawks, as the country I was to pass through for the 
first days of the journey was represented to be full of 
game ; and the trained hawks of this place are said to 
be the best in Africa ; but I was unable to purchase 
any. Some of my friends assured me that I should 
find no difficulty in obtaining the birds from the Arabs ; 
but I eventually found that my informants were mis- 
taken. Both in Benghazi and in its neighbourhood, 
I often met horsemen with a hawk, either perched on 
the right hand or seated on the crupper of the horse ; 
but I never found any one willing to part with this 
favourite companion. Yet there are seasons of the 



166 



WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XIII. 



year when they are to he had at a small price ; in 
spring, many young hawks are brought to the market, 
and the proprietors of trained birds will then willingly 
dispose of theirs, at a price for which they can buy a 
dozen young ones, whose education they find both 
amusing and profitable. 

Stopping to rearrange the luggage half a dozen 
times while the town was still in sight, our progress 
the first day was very slow, and we pitched the tents 
for the night at a distance of about eight miles from 
Benghazi, having traversed a country unmarked by 
any feature but the shapeless ruins of what may once 
have been an extensive villa, or a very small - village. 
The next day, we reached, in three hours, extensive 
ruins, called by the Arabs Idirsa, which cover much 
ground, but nowhere offer extensive debris, nor even 
a plan of any large building. The sea, though 
still in sight, lay considerably to the right. Avoiding 
the promontory of Bozium, and the site of the old 
Jewish colony (which presents nothing remarkable), I 
followed the road which runs through the middle of 
the wide plain lying between the hills which I crossed 
in going to Cyrene, and the sea, which here trends 
gradually to the west. Two hours further on, we came 
to a place, Ourm Sofah, marked by very deep wells 
hewn in the rock, beside which was a pool formed by 
the recent rains. At this moment, the country is 



Chap. XIII. BENGHAZI TO AN GILA. 167 

dotted far and near with such sheets of water, formed 
wherever a clay bottom, or a depression in the rocks, 
presents a surface favourable for the collection of the 
rain. Herds of cattle render these pools muddy and 
uninviting to the eye ; but when they have just been 
formed, there is probably no risk in drinking their 
water. For greater precaution, however, as well as to 
accustom my servants to the trouble, I had the water 
boiled before we drank it ; this process, of course, gave 
it an unpalatable flatness, but it is thought necessary, 
in order to avoid the risk of fevers, so often caused by 
drinking stagnant water. During this day's journey 
and the two succeeding ones, we saw in every direction 
groups of Arab tents, inhabited by people from Ben- 
ghazi, who had come to sow the extensive plain we were 
passing through. The soil is a rich loam, yielding, 
without any sort of tilling* abundant harvests of wheat 
and barley. It seems probable that, if a moderate 
amount of labour were expended in the husbandry of 
this country, its ample crops would vie with those of 
Egypt or Sicily. As it is, nature is left to herself; 
when the winter is rainy, the crops are very large, but 
if the rains are scanty, the harvest fails. In autumn, 
after the first rains, the seed is scattered broadcast on 
the ground, and over this a light plough of wood, shod 
with iron, is drawn, turning up, or rather scratching, 
the ground, to a depth of about two inches. By this 



168 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AERICA. Chap. XIII. 

process the seed is covered. The husbandman returns 
to Benghazi, and no other care is bestowed upon the 
crop until the sower returns in spring to reap it. The 
land is open to the first comer, the Government re- 
ceiving a tenth of the produce as rent ; but this rent 
is very arbitrarily fixed, and thereby ample room is 
given to the ingenuity of the Turkish employes. The 
result is that the taxation is often most exorbitant, as 
I have meDtioned in a former page. This year the 
early rains gave an impulse to speculation. About 
one-third of the Benghazini were now squatting on the 
plain; every animal — horse, ass, ox, cow, or camel 
— that could be made to drag the light ploughshare 
having been laid under contribution. The prices of 
these animals had, consequently, increased greatly in 
the market. If the winter proved as rainy as it 
threatened, sundry little fortunes would no doubt be 
made. Many of the Europeans and wealthier Arabs, 
who do not themselves go to the country, employ a 
man to sow seed for them, they providing the seed 
and cattle ; the man receives half the profit, besides 
160 piastres — about thirty shillings — for sowing and 
reaping. 

Eight hours from Ourm Sofah are the rains of a 
large castle of the same character and epoch as those 
of Benigdun, called Tell-i-mout. The walls are, in 
the lower part, formed by four courses of large ma- 



Chap. XIII. CORN STORES. — CACHETTES. 



169 



sonry ; and above, to an equal, or rather greater 
height (probably a later construction), they are built 
of small stones. There remain two sides of an oblong 
rectangle, with a square tower at the north-east corner, 
whose entrance is by a well-turned arch from the in- 
terior. The large stones of the lower courses are 
literally covered with Tawarick characters — most pro- 
bably merely indicating the passage by them of the 
Arab tribes, which use one or other of these signs as 
their distinctive marks; but the number, size, and 
regularity of these characters in this place are truly 
astonishing. During the remainder of this day's jour- 
ney the character of the country remained unchanged, 
and nothing marked our course except a solitary 
marabut, Sidi Keilani, on the right, three hours and 
a half from Tell-i-mout ; from hence proceeding as far 
again, we reached the first Bedawin tents we had seen 
since we left Benghazi, pitched in a place called Keif- 
i-djil. Here there are large stores of grain, formed on 
the same principle as the cachettes or silos of the 
Algerian tribes, which resemble the grain stores at 
Leghorn. A conical hole, dug in the ground, is 
lined with straw, and after being filled with grain, 
is thatched over with straw and mud. The people 
assured me that neither ants nor vermin ever attack 
these stores, and at Leghorn I have heard it asserted 
that in the similar receptacles there, built of stone and 

i 



170 



WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XIII. 



plastered, the grain can be preserved good for fifty 
years. Two hours further on are ponds and a well, 
in a place called Sa'aity. Here the ground is co- 
vered with large fragments of stone, and seemed a fa- 
vourite resort of scorpions, which the Arabs, who were 
with me, amused themselves in hunting. They brought 
me one of a greenish yellow colour, fully five inches 
long. The gerboas also abound in this place ; they 
are about the size of a rat, and one sees them towards 
evening in great numbers, jumping along like the 
kangaroo, their long, elegant tail, tipped with white, 
trailing on the ground ; the plain is riddled with their 
holes, which makes quick riding very unsafe. 

At Sa'aity I remained half a day, while the camel- 
drivers bought food for their beasts from some grain 
stores on a slight hill above the well. These Majabra 
were in many respects the worst people I had yet had 
to deal with; the only good quality I discovered in 
them was the rapidity with which they loaded in the 
morning. The time gained in this way, however, was 
lost in another ; their object in such quick loading 
being merely to get off, and to leave as much of their 
load as they could behind them. The consequence of 
this was, that as much as two camels could conve- 
niently carry, fell to the share of the last-loaded camels, 
over and above their fair allowance. On such occa- 
sions I had to make the whole caravan return, which 



Chap. XIII. THE MA J ABE A AEABS. 171 

cost quick riding and loud words ; and then at length 
each received his fair proportion of the articles that had 
been left. Day after day the same scene was renewed, 
until I at last resorted to the expedient of having 
my carpet spread for breakfast on the road they were 
to take — a scheme which, united with constant watch- 
fulness, I found tolerably successful. They have an- 
other accomplishment, hardly less agreeable to the 
traveller who is at their mercy. They must have 
learned, that if eloquence be silver, silence is gold ; 
and therefore they show themselves most unwilling 
to afford the smallest particle of information, silencing 
questions with a prolonged nasal grunt, which seems 
to play the same part in their conversation as the 
" So-o-o !" of the Germans. On the journey they sing 
their unmelodious chaunts nearly all day long, one 
relieving the other ; their song being at rare intervals 
interrupted by an occasional admonition to a camel 
to make a little more way. They never swear at their 
beasts, however, as European, and especially Italian, 
postilions are in the habit of doing ; the ear is not, 
therefore, shocked with the obscene blasphemies which 
are so offensive on a journey in the Koman or Neapo- 
litan States. Here the driver apostrophises his camel 
with one invariable expression of abuse, which seems 
quite as efficacious as a volley of oaths — " Oh, you 
Jew ! " and the camel mends its pace. It is true that 

I 2 



172 



WAND E KIN G S IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XIII. 



this is usually accompanied with an admonition from 
a full-grown stick, which may perhaps have some 
effect in quickening its step; but I am persuaded, 
nevertheless, that the insult to its feelings has more 
to do in rousing it to exertion, than the application 
of the "baton to its hide. The food of the Majabra is 
basina, like that of the Barca Arabs, a mess prepared 
with flour, water, and salt, kneaded into a tough paste, 
then boiled, and eaten with a little oil or butter ; it is 
a tough, and must be a most indigestible composition. 
They eat enormous quantities of it, re-kneading it with 
the fingers of the right hand into large balls, and 
dipping in oil, so as to enable them to bolt it ; to see 
them devour it is one among the most wonderful things 
in this country. 

There are wells, for which I could obtain no name, 
ten hours from Sa'aity. After this, the country be- 
comes somewhat less level than it has hitherto been, 
swelling in slight hills, the soil more stony and sandy, 
less capable of producing grain, and covered with low, 
thorny, and fleshy-leaved shrubs. Five and a half 
hours further on, are wells, called El Farsy. These, 
like the preceding ones, are pierced in the rock, and to 
obtain the water from them, it is necessary for some 
one to be lowered into the well, as the water does not 
lie immediately under the upper orifice. There is a 
large chamber hollowed in the rock, in one corner of 



Chap. XIII. EUINS NEAE EL-FAESY. 173 

which the well is sunk ; I did not descend into it, and 
it was not till I was far past it, that one of the men 
told rne there were inscriptions on its sides. This is 
as likely to be false as true, as I have twenty times 
gone, on the strength of Arab information, to look for 
inscriptions in places where nothing of the sort was to 
be seen ; but this would have been no reason for 
neglecting to examine this well-chamber, had I known 
of it in time. It was now too late in the evening to 
return that day, and the next I was not inclined for 
an expedition whose result was so uncertain, while 
I had before me the more promising ruins of El- 
Ajclabiah. 

These old Saracenic ruins are four hours and a half 
from El Farsy ; they present groups of buildings situ- 
ated on two low hills, about a quarter of a mile apart. 
The centre of the intervening space is a flat bare rock, 
in which several wells are pierced. The first group 
which the traveller, coming from Benghazi, meets, con- 
tains the remains of a castle of excellent architecture, 
which cannot be later than the third century of the 
Hejirah. It is a rectangular structure, terminating in 
three vaulted chambers, the extremity of the centre 
one of which has an octagonal niche, on which the 
plaster still remains. This end is flanked by round, 
dome-covered towers, whose sides are perforated with 
loopholes for arrows ; but neither within nor without, 



174 



WANDERINGS IN NOETH AFRICA. Chap. XIII. 



neither above nor below, could I discover ornament or 
inscription. Failing here, I now turned to the oppo- 
site group of ruins, the debris of a very large mosque, 
in which I had no doubt that I should find something 
to reward me for having chosen this route rather than 
the shorter one, which, from Sa'aity, takes more to the 
eastward. The mosque is in even a more ruinous condi- 
tion than the castle, but is of equally good construction ; 
in one corner are still standing about fifteen feet of the 
light- sided minaret ; towards the other, three light and 
lofty arches, and beyond them the Kibleh niche, or 
minbar. Bound its arch may be traced remains of 
a zigzag ornament, and on the capital of one of the 
two pillars which support it, I persuaded myself that 
I could trace the first three letters of the profession 
of faith. Believing implicitly the accounts I had 
somewhere read of the ornamental inscriptions of 
Ajdabiah, I had bargained with my camel-men to stay 
here two or three days if I required it, in order to exa- 
mine them ; but no exertion of eyesight or imagination 
could enable me to discover more than these three 
letters, if they were really such ; for, after all, they 
might have been mere accidental scratches in the stone. 
Whatever may have been the case when the buildings 
were less ruinous, I can safely affirm that there is in 
no part of them now a trace of an inscription in any 
character, excepting those Arab marks to which I have 



Chap. XIII. KEMAKKABLE FORTRESS. 175 

already several times alluded. I was greatly disap- 
pointed ; and as soon as the water-skins were filled (an 
operation which was protracted during four hours), I 
saw the caravan depart. I took myself a S.S.W. direc- 
tion, though with little hope of any satisfactory result ; 
and rode to Henayah, a distance of about seven miles. 

Henayah is a strong fortress of very early architec- 
ture, and by far the most curious construction I had 
met with in these countries. The squared mass of 
rock, on which the keep is built, is not higher than 
the surrounding ground ; but it is isolated by a dry 
moat, fourteen feet wide, and nine deep, cut in the 
living rock. On the square mass, eighty feet on every 
side, left in the centre, rose the walls of the keep, of 
which only a few feet in height now remain. It is 
approached by means of a wall, hardly fifteen inches 
broad, which is built across the moat on one side. 
This wall was, perhaps, once the support of a move- 
able bridge. The interior of the rock's base is entirely 
excavated, forming a centre chamber, now open to the 
sky, and entered by a flight of steps; round this 
chamber are cut a number of vaults, communicating 
with it, and having small openings, to admit light and 
air, pierced in the sides. This is, however, only the 
smallest part of the old stronghold, its size being 
greatly increased by extensive caves, to the number of 
twenty- eight, cut in the rock, beyond the moat, into 



176 



WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XIII. 



which they all open. In no part of these laborious 
excavations could I discover any inscription, or any 
evidence of their origin; but, judging from the beauti- 
ful execution of the whole — from the form of the lamp 
niches which are cut in several of the vaults, as well as 
from the general style, resembling what is found in 
some of the Greek isles — I have no hesitation in 
ascribing it to a date coeval with the best monuments 
in Cyrene. 

The water of its wells, being the last sweet water to 
be met with before reaching Angila, pointed it out as a 
natural resting-place for the caravans which brought 
gold, gems, slaves, and ivory, from the interior to 
Cyrene. I cannot, therefore, doubt, that it must have 
served as a fortress, and, not improbably, also as a maga- 
zine for the caravans trading with the interior and with 
Carthage. El Ajdabiah replaced it in the Saracenic 
epoch ; and so little have things changed in the long 
lapse of years, that the wells of the latter place, though 
its castles and mosques have fallen, are still the favourite 
halt of the caravans passing between Benghazi and 
Angila. 

The commerce is now insignificant ; Angila and 
Jalo have only dates to send in exchange for com and 
the few manufactured articles which the rude life of 
these people requires. At uncertain and long intervals, 
however, when the great caravan from Waday arrives, 



Chap. XIII. H0R110RS OF THE SLATE TEADE. 177 

life is given to the commerce of Benghazi. Then the 
old picture of Cyrenean commerce is for a short time 
renewed. The desert, for weeks, is alive with long files 
of camels, which arrive, laden with ivory and gum ; 
and with them, alas ! as in old times, hundreds of un- 
happy creatures — the spoil of war — condemned to 
slavery, who come halting in, at the end of this first 
hundred days' stage of their misery. How many, hap- 
pier than their fellows, have dropped exhausted on the 
dreary road! Twenty-one degrees they traverse on 
foot, exposed to the rays of a tropical sun, wiien, for 
twelve days at a time, no water is found ; without 
clothing, and having a handful of meal for their daily 
food. Fatigue and thirst in vain lessen the num- 
bers of the melancholy caravan ; the number of 
"heads" brought to the market diminish, but the 
profit of the traffic is still enormous, being more lucra- 
tive than that of ivory, which, from Waday, yields at 
least 500 per cent. I have heard natives describe the 
appearance of one of these caravans on its arrival, and 
the sufferings of the slaves, with a simplicity of lan- 
guage, and a reckless thoughtlessness, most heart- 
rending. And to think that a single word from 
England could arrest these horrors ! In treaties and 
conventions we have spumed all the old established 
laws of international right, in our desire to put down 

I 3 



178 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XIII. 

the slave trade in the colonies of independent sove- 
reigns; but it would seem as though we dared not 
put a veto upon a branch of it ten times more cruel 
than was the slave trade on the Atlantic before we 
declared it piracy. It may be answered, that we may 
indeed force Turkey to abolish the slave trade in words, 
but that we cannot ensure the performance of her pro- 
mises ; that we can send no men-of-war into the 
deserts to enforce our humane decrees ; that slavery is 
bound up with Islam ; and that society in the East is, 
in fact, founded upon the godless institution. Many 
will also say (and this I do not deny), that when at 
length the slaves are brought into the Turkish do- 
minions, they become comparatively happy, are well 
clothed, well fed, and well cared for ; and that, if torn 
from their country, they are removed from its idolatries 
and ignorance ; and that the first care of a Moslem (in 
this respect infinitely superior to the more polished 
savages of the slave-holding States in America) is, to 
teach his slave a religion which assures him that all 
men, of all colours, are alike the children of one God, 
and equal in His eyes. All this is true ; but it in no 
degree lessens the horror of the traffic in human flesh, 
or the privations to which its victims are exposed. 

Whoever knows Turkey, knows that its many pro- 
vinces are only held together by the shadow of a name, 



Chap. XIII. ENGLAND SHOULD FORBID IT. 



179 



and that a stroke of the diplomatic pen will suffice to 
sever any part from the remainder. Syria, Egypt, 
even fanatic Tripoli, would hail with joy a Christian— 
that is, a European — master. Wherever they rule 
the Turks are hated, and their subjects are kept in 
subjection by a superstitious veneration for the old 
power, which has long departed — as the genii waited 
in awe round the throne of Solomon, not perceiving 
that the master spirit had forsaken its tenement of clay. 
You have paid twenty millions to liberate your slaves 
in the colonies ; and God knows what vast treasures — 
how many lives of Englishmen — have been sacrificed 
to stop this trade on the western coasts of Africa ! Be 
consistent still ; and if you will not take possession of 
the lands of Egypt and Tripoli (by whose frontiers the 
slaves for the whole empire are imported), let your 
commands go forth to him who is now but the shadow 
of the shadow of God upon earth. He dare not dis- 
obey them if he would. You will be following, in 
favour of humanity, an example proposed to you in 
every page of Turkish history — the strong extorting 
submission from the weak. Increase, if necessary, the 
number of your functionaries, create an imperium in 
imperio, to watch the execution of your orders ; 
trample, in the cause of freedom, upon every diplo- 
matic form — forms, alas ! are all that remain of diplo- 



180 



WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XTIT. 



macy — and extend to the Mediterranean the treaties 
which you have applied to the Atlantic. * 

This evening, six of my camels, which had been 
turned out to feed on the scanty herbage which dotted 
the plain, wandered away. They were not to be found 
at their supper- time ; so their owners went off in quest 
of them. The next morning, they had not yet re- 
turned ; and it seemed a fortunate chance alone which 
enabled us to start at last about twelve o'clock. They 
had gone on their way to Angila, probably not a little 
pleased to have left all their packages behind them; 
and were met by a caravan of Arabs, coming in the 
opposite direction, who, understanding the case — no 
unfrequent one in places where the herbage is scanty — 
turned their heads backwards. The soil had now be- 
come sandy and stony, unfit for cultivation, but 
covered with dwarf shrubs of three or four varieties, 
though all having one general character — woody, 
gnarled stems, and fleshy leaves. The first rains are 
in the desert immediately succeeded by spring ; hence 
these plants were all green and in full flower ; some of 
them were very beautiful on close inspection ; but the 

* Since these lines were written (in 1853), a decree is said to 
have heen published, aholishing the trade in slaves throughout 
the Ottoman Empire. In Cairo, in Alexandria, it is at this moment 
as active as ever. — Cairo, 15th July, 1855. 



Chap. XIII. HEEDS OF GAZELLES. 181 

pale yellow and pink colours of their blossoms, not- 
withstanding their abundance, had little effect in 
tinging the general landscape. 

During the two days, after passing El Ajdabiah, we 
saw immense herds of gazelles ; but they were too shy 
to give one a chance of getting within shot of them ; 
and there was too little cover to stalk them. The 
greyhound which I had with me was young, and far 
too frightened to do more than run after them for a 
short distance; when she thought she was getting 
dangerously near, she would stop, and look round. 
There is a race of greyhounds peculiar to this country, 
generally of a pale fawn colour, with very short hair, 
and limbs almost as fine as those of the Italian pet 
greyhound. They are very swift, and, when well 
trained, will run down a gazelle. They are, however, 
not often to be met with for sale, the best being in 
the hands of the Zowaya Arabs, who inhabit El Ijherri, 
a small oasis to the north-east of Jalo. In winter and 
spring, they pitch their tents round El Ajdabiah (it 
was, indeed, a party of them who had so opportunely 
met our camels), and, in summer, turn southwards to 
gather the dates in El Kofrah, a range of uninhabited 
oases, of which the last is marked in our maps as 
Kebabo. The plain, south of Benghazi, up to the 
desert which we were approaching, affords excellent 
sport; abounding in hares, the red-legged partridge, 



182 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XIII. 

the kattak, or sand grouse with yellowish plumage, 
quails, and, occasionally, the bustard. There is, 
besides these, a ground lark, existing in great numbers, 
which is as large as a quail, and forms no unwelcome 
addition to a traveller's fare, in the absence of larger 
game. I should be ungrateful, were I to omit adding 
to this list of good things the juicy mushroom, which 
seemed, for several days, to spring up under our feet, 
begging to be gathered for supper. 

Fourteen hours from El Ajdabiah, we came to the 
boundary of vegetation ; a very long range of low sand 
hills, rising one above another in almost imperceptible 
gradations. The sand is of a pale yellow colour, and 
in some places forms almost an impalpable powder, 
but in others it is mixed with gravel of finely-rounded, 
variegated pebbles, such as would be invaluable for 
the walks of a garden. The Arab name for these hills 
is El-Towaleh, and they are well called so, for they 
seem long without end, the gradual rise of the range 
never affording a view of a mile in any direction. It 
took nearly thirteen hours to cross this range — the 
thirteen longest hours I remember ; for, until the last 
two were reached, there was no interruption to the con- 
stant up and down, through featureless sand ; nor was 
it possible to tell whether one had reached the summit 
or not. At length, large masses «of petrified wood, 
scattered over the surface, afforded something to look 



Chap. XIII. 



BEUCE. — EE SAM. 



183 



at. In many places, the surface of the sand is blis- 
tered with an incrustation of salt, looking as if frozen. 
Low, flat ledges of white limestone rise above the 
general line ; and semi-transparent crystals of gypsum 
are scattered over the sand. A few trees appeared in a 
hollow, arid we had at last reached a—j y Resam. 



The waters of Resam, mentioned by Bruce, are of a 
milky colour, and salt, though hardly more so than 
those of most of the wells which I met with afterwards 
in the desert; I thought them pleasant enough to 
drink when cold; but they acquire a peculiarly bitter 
taste when boiled. Bruce, from forgetfulness, has 
confounded Resam with the promontory marked as 
Ros Sam* in our maps — a name, by the way, unknown 

* On referring to Beechey's NaiTative, since these pages were 
written, I find that he speaks of Kas Sem as a name unknown to 
the Arabs to designate the promontory marked thus in our maps. 
The coast, from a few miles west of Apollonia, has a very gradual 
inclination southwards, but so slight that it is impossible to de- 
signate even the place from which it begins to turn as a headland. 
Shaw and Bruce's account of the well five or six days south of 
Benghazi agrees perfectly with the place called by the Arabs 
B'sam; and although the very bitter well is eight hours further 
on, there can be no doubt it is to this place that they allude. The 
petrified city, with its inhabitants, does not exist ; its magnificent 
castle is only the Saracenic building, now called Sheikh Es-saby ; 
but the ground is to some distance strewed with petrified wood. 
The dream of the city where " men are conspicuous in different 
attitudes, some of them exercising their trades and occupations, 
and women giving suck to their children," is due, of course, to 
Arab imagination, and not to those truthful travellers. 




184 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XIII. 



to the natives of the country — and the aluminous 
water, which he places here, is, in fact, that of a well 
rather further on ; which well I reached the next day 
in six hours, at Marag, or Marak. The water at 
Kesam rises in great abundance to within a few feet 
from the surface ; and the slight hollow in which it 
lies, partaking entirely of the nature of an oasis, is 
diversified by palms and large tamarisks. As a desert 
scene, it is at once highly characteristic. The slight 
mounds which collect round the tamarisks, and out of 
which they grow, break the uniformity of the surface, 
while their pale, feathery foliage affords a pleasant 
shade, and the few stately palm trees rise gracefully 
against the clear blue sky. 

Two miles S.S.W. of Kesam is a Saracenic ruin, of 
the same date as El Ajdabiah, called Sheikh Es~saby, 
evidently a stronghold. A square court, surrounded 
by four arches, which may once have supported a 
cupola (though I could see no remains of this), is 
supposed by the Arabs to contain the tomb of the 
Sheikh ; and, when I was there, a carmut, the cradle 
sort of conveyance in which ladies and children are 
housed on the camel's back, was in the saint's keeping. 
This custom of leaving furniture, and even provisions, 
in the keeping of a reputed saint — that is to say, of de- 
positing them on his tomb — to be taken again at the 
return of the owners with the caravan, is very common ; 



Chap. XIII. OASIS OF ANGILA. 



185 



and travellers in several parts of Africa have mentioned 
it. I have never heard of such deposits being stolen. 

We did not stop at Marag ; but I tasted the water, 
which was quite clear and cool, and had a strong smell 
of sulphuretted hydrogen. I did not drink of it suf- 
ficiently to test the assertion of the Arabs, who boast 
of its purgative qualities; but, from its taste and smell, 
I should suspect that it contains sulphate of magnesia. 
The bottle, in which I had brought away a specimen 
of it for analysis, was broken on the journey. At 
several points near the well, the stratified rock rises in 
isolated masses from the sand; their weather-beaten 
sides, with the slabs which have fallen, and lie scat- 
tered round their base, have, at a slight distance, 
the appearance of ruins. A few stunted trees in the 
midst rendered the whole a melancholy scene. 

The next morning the sun rose in a thick mist, like 
a November fog in England. Its pale white orb could 
be gazed at without wincing ; below it was a luminous 
spot, like a second sun, and again below this a long 
line of bright light rested on the horizon. At eight 
the mist began to disperse, and then in the opposite 
side of the heaven a distinct bow of white was visible, 
faintly fringed at the lower extremities with the pris- 
matic colours. Twenty hours of travelling during two 
days, over unmitigated sand, brought us to the skirts 
of the oasis of Angila. It was near sunset when I 



186 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XIII. 



rode into the pa]m-tree plantations to seek a place for 
the camp. The first appearance presented to the eye 
by the large plantation rising in the midst of the 
loose sand, was most singular. The rosy light which 
coloured the ground when the sun's rays penetrated 
the tall stems, gave the part which was in shade a 
white appearance like snow, which, contrasted with the 
bright green of the bushy young palms, lent to the 
whole the appearance of a winter scene, while the air 
was balmy as summer, and the bright evening sky 
glowed with orange and purple tints, such as Italy or 
Greece cannot show. The scene one might liken to 
a Flemish snow-piece seen in Naples on a summer's 
day. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Angila and Jalo. and — Group of Oases. — 

The Majabra Arabs.— The Sultan of Waday.— Turkish Drunk- 
ards. — Inconveniences of Travel. 

'November 17. — The palm groves extend for more 
than three miles in a curved hollow to the town of 
Angila, and nearly as much beyond it, forming almost 
a half circle of verdure. The fertile part of the oasis 
is considerably beneath the level of the surrounding 
country, so that the water being nearer the surface, 
the roots of the palm trees, which pierce downwards to 
a great depth, reach it, and thus obtain their nourish- 
ment. The town is built on a slight elevation, nearly 
equidistant from the two furthest points of the oasis. 
It is surrounded by a thin mud wall, some twelve feet 
high, but not more than nine or ten inches thick; this 
wall is in a most delapidated condition, in several 
places entirely destroyed, and in others worn into in- 
numerable holes. Six gate towers of equally substan- 
tial architecture give entrance to the long and tortuous 
lanes of the capital. 



188 WANDE KINGS IN NOETH AFKICA. Chap. XIV. 

Sheikh Othman-el-Fadil, the hereditary Sheikh of 
Angila, and the Kehia who happened to he in the 
town, came to my tent as soon as I arrived. The 
former I had seen in Benghazi, and he showed me 
every attention, convenient and inconvenient, in his 
power, hy way, prohahly, of asserting his right to the 
family name, which means " the complaisant." I re- 
turned the Governor's visit, and thus had an oppor- 
tunity of seeing " the castle," which is situated near 
the great mosque — a not less ruinous structure than 
the external walls. It is composed of several very 
small courts with recesses, which serve as sleeping or 
store rooms ; the open court, in which are mastahahs — 
mud divans covered with carpets — is the place of re- 
ception. The Governor either could not or would not 
tell me the numher of inhabitants, or even of the 
houses, saying they were written in the Deftar, the 
domesday-book of Benghazi ; and, in fact, he seemed 
quite determined that it should not be in my power to 
quote Mm as giving any information dangerous to the 
State. 

1 looked into the principal mosque in passing; like 
all the other buildings it is of mud and small stones, 
with many low columns and arches of the same mate- 
rial; the roof being formed of small conical cupolas 
like sugar loaves, some of which are four feet in dia- 
meter, and eight or ten in height. This is the conse- 



Chap. XIV. INHABITANTS OF ANGILA. 



189 



crated style of building for the mosques, of which 
there are fourteen. Prom the "best information I could 
obtain, it seemed that the number of inhabited houses 
was under 500. The Kehia, an Arab of Benghazi, 
only comes here once a year, and then to collect the 
tribute ; his visit ended, the Wagily, as the inhabitants 
of Angila are called, are left to follow their own de- 
vices. The Sheikh has a traditionary, but no legal 
authority; if crimes occur, his duty is to report them 
to the Bey of Benghazi, and wait for orders before 
sending the offenders with the witnesses to the Bey for 
judgment. Of course, with such a system, the only 
check upon crime and violence is in the natural dispo- 
sition of the people, or in the fear of blood feuds; re- 
course is, indeed, rarely or never had to the distant 
and doubtful justice thus to be sought in Benghazi. 

The inhabitants of these oases indulge greatly in a 
slightly-intoxicating drink, derived from the palm tree. 
Sheikh Othman, who himself professes not to indulge 
in this forbidden luxury, was so obliging as to take 
me to one of his gardens to see the method by which 
it is obtained. The tree is stripped of its branches, 
and the crown cut off, so as to lay bare the heart ; a 
small drain is then cut in the edge, to which the mouth 
of ajar is applied, and for months the tree yields its 
daily tribute of lagbij. From time to time the crust 
is cut from the wound to facilitate the flow of the 



190 



WANDEEINGrS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XIV. 



juice; for this purpose an instrument is used, in shape 
like a horse fleam, tied at right angles to a handle of 
wood. After three or four months, the wouud is gene- 
rally closed; the tree does not yield fruit for some 
years after this exhausting process, and will die if 
the wound be left too long open. It seemed to me, 
however, that the tree never recovers its stately appear- 
ance, but ever in after life has a debauched, drunken 
look about its branches, indicative of its former in- 
temperate habits. The drink itself is of a milky 
white colour ; on the first day it is drawn, it is sweet, 
like the milk of the cocoa-nut; on the second, acid 
and slightly vinous ; and, on the third, it is already 
vinegar. Though drinkable in large draughts in the 
second stage, when it has only a slightly acid taste, it 
is still a poor substitute for the smallest small beer. 
The Wagily are rich in about 16,000 date trees, and 
their gardens produce gourds, melons, tomatos, and 
onions, with a small quantity of kesab and barley. 

I next day continued my journey to Jalo, where I 
hoped to make arrangements for my further progress. 
On the same day that I left Benghazi, a Turk, de- 
pendant on the Kaimahan, set off for Jalo, to take the 
census of the date trees, on which the taxes are levied ; 
the result of the last one having been unsatisfactory 
to a large party of the inhabitants. He was accom- 
panied by Yunes, one of the sheikhs, who had given 



Chap. XIV. GEOUP OF OASES. 



191 



me every promise of assistance, though not disguising 
the difficulty I should probably find in pursuing my 
original plan, which was to go to the Koffra, and 
thence eastwards towards the Nile. Such a route was 
quite new to the Majabra, and no one would venture 
to join me in exploring it; I could not even find any 
one willing to accompany me to Gebabo^^L^. The 
Zowayah had already returned ; after whom parties of 
Tibbus often visit these oases to glean the fruit which 
remains on the date trees. 

Jalo, 28 miles, or eight hours E.S.E. from Angila, 
is by far the most important in this group of oases ; 
the name, now restricted to the first, was probably in 
ancient times applied to the whole group. The oases, 
according to the earliest accounts we have of them, 
contained no fixed inhabitants ; the Libyan nomads 
paid them a summer visit to gather dates, in the same 
way that the Zowayah now go to the Koffra. In the 
time of the Eoman domination of Africa, they con- 
tained a small settlement, which, probably, had been 
formed to meet the necessities of the caravans. Jalo 
is approached by a hollow, bordered on each side by 
rows of tamarisks, which gradually opens into a plain, 
bounded by low sand hills. On two of them, facing 
each other, Leb U^J and El'Erg two villages 

of much humbler pretensions than Angila, are built. 
Each contains a few mud houses, but the dwellings are 



192 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XIV. 

mostly huts (zeribah), constructed of palm branches, 
generally of a conical form, eight or nine feet in dia- 
meter, and rarely more than seven high at the apex. 
The mosques are mere square mud structures, without 
any attempt at ornament ; and, instead of walls and 
gate-towers, a simple palisading of palm branches 
surrounds each village. Jalo is, however, more popu- 
lous than Angila, and a far greater degree, not of com- 
fort — this is unknown in such places — but of lien etre, 
is found here. This arises not only from the great 
extent of its palm groves, but principally from the 
occupation of its inhabitants, who are all merchants. 
They are of different origin from the Wagily, some 
speaking Arabic, whilst others, both in appearance 
and language, preserve the Berber type. El'Erg con- 
tains 4000 inhabitants, allowing five to a family, which 
is rather above than below the average ; it contains 
seven mosques, distinguished only by little white flags, 
and is governed by twelve sheikhs. Leb, which is but 
half this size, rejoices in only three sheikhs and as 
many mosques. 

I encamped in the plain between the two villages, 
where I found Hafiz Effendi's tent already pitched ; 
he had chosen this central position by way of proving 
his impartiality, for there is, of course, great rivalry 
between the two places. I took my ground between 
two large clumps of tamarisks (ef-teleh), the only vege- 



Chap. XIY. 



COUNTRY AROUND JALO. 



193 



tation which the plain presented ; their graceful foliage 
affords a relief to the eye, the small crystals of salt 
with which it is covered giving it an ashy gray colour; 
here, then, was an imperfect representation of the 
three Turkish elements of happiness — a bright eye, 
a green shade, and a running stream. The tamarisk 
clumps were the only variety in the monotonous yellow 
which surrounded me on every side, for the date groves 
are only visible at a distance in one direction. It 
would be possible to render the whole of this plain 
productive, but the Majabra have too little taste for 
agriculture to take the necessary trouble. About three 
feet beneath the sand is found a layer of whitish clay, 
which, when uncovered and watered, yields crops of 
barley, wheat, and a few vegetables ; but the labour 
required for this is great. The people are addicted to 
an idle roving life, and as the date-trees produce abun- 
dant harvests, almost without care, other cultivation 
is very much neglected. The dates are of an inferior 
quality to those of Angila, but they afford the prin- 
cipal article of food, not only to man, but also for 
all his dependent quadrupeds. Horses, dogs, camel, 
sheep, are all put on this same regimen, which Sheikh 
Yunes pretended was a very wholesome one, but the 
blackened jagged teeth, universal here, seemed to con- 
tradict him. 

The palm groves which surround Jalo contain up- 



194 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XIV. 



wards of 100,000 trees, the tax upon each of which is 
four Turkish piastres. The former census only counted 
45,000, but the new one, which is now going on, will 
raise this number to 65,000, an increase of taxation 
produced by the complaints of the people themselves, 
who are now, as may be supposed, furious at their own 
stupidity. For several evenings after the census began, 
when the people saw the turn it was likely to take, the 
women of the two villages assembled after dark and 
filled the air, in alternate chorus, with yelling curses 
upon Hafiz Effendi. He allowed them the uninter- 
rupted enjoyment of this female form of respectful 
remonstrance, and after a few nights, either from 
hoarseness or disgust at finding their eloquence dis- 
regarded, this expression of public opinion was aban- 
doned. I went two or three times to see the method 
adopted for taking the census; nothing could be sim- 
pler or more tedious. The commissioners, surrounded 
by all the fifteen sheikhs, and the greater part of the 
proprietors, male and female, of the plantation they 
were visiting, went from place to place, counting and 
recounting the trees. Every artifice was put in prac- 
tice to distract their attention, or to puzzle the com- 
missioners as to ownership ; indeed, this latter was no 
difficult matter, for many trees have three or four 
owners, or one man s property is dispersed here and 
there, through the whole oasis. A good date-tree will 



Chap. XIV. THE MAJABBA AEABS. 195 

yield three hundredweight of fruit on alternate years ; 
the produce being generally smaller in the intervening 
year. As dates are worth about 20 piastres a hundred- 
weight, the tax is about a tithe of the produce. 

The wells of Jalo are all brackish, and the nearest 
sweet water is at a distance of six hours ; hither, at 
rare intervals, the ladies of the place resort to wash 
the cotton shirts and woollen plaids, which are the 
costume of their lords. The scanty fauna is confined 
to the fox, wolf, or jackal, fovina and gerboa. There 
are snakes, which are said to be venomous and of 
large size, but though I offered backshish I could ob- 
tain no specimens of them, either here or at Angila. 
Some exuviae, which I found in a quarry near my 
tent, at the latter place, proved the fact of their exist- 
ence and their size. Of antiquities I could learn no- 
thing ; the subterranean temple, with a cubical idol, 
mentioned by some writer, the oldest inhabitants had 
never heard of, and the only curiosity which they 
could point out to me, was a single large hewn stone, 
about four miles south-west of El 'Erg, under which 
they suppose a treasure to be concealed. 

The Majabra are, almost without exception, ad- 
dicted to excessive drinking, owing, no doubt, to the 
facility of procuring laghy. At an early age they 
commence their apprenticeship in trade by journeys 
to Benghazi, soon followed by longer courses to 

K 2 



196 WANDEEINGS IN NOETH AFEICA. Chap. XIV. 

Egypt and Fezzan. They are the great slave- dealers 
of these countries, purchasing their human merchan- 
dise in Fezzan, from wholesale dealers, many of whom 
are Majahra settled there. The latter make every 
year an incursion into Bornou, and return with troops 
of five or six hundred slaves, which they afterwards 
sell in retail to the men of Jalo. The most valuable 
black slaves are called Fellatah ; they have nearly 
straight hair, and their features hear little of the negro 
type. Their distinctive mark is three slashes on the 
cheeks and two on the temples. The gains in this 
trade are very large, and many of the Jalese have 
amassed in it large sums ; which sums, however, they 
have no means of spending. The women are gene- 
rally unveiled, wearing a long blue shirt and a milayah 
on the head, like the fellah women in Egypt ; they 
enjoy a good reputation for purity of morals. 

Finding myself obliged to renounce all hopes of 
going to the Koffra, I contented myself with gather- 
ing such information as I could from those who had 
been there. The nearest oasis is distant six days' 
journey, over a flat sandy desert, unbroken by rock or 
shrub, and having no wells. The remaining ones are 
respectively at a good day's journey from each other : 
the furthest and largest, Gebabo, , being consi- 

dered twelve days distant. These oases are totally 
uninhabited, except in autumn, when the Zowayah 



Chap. XIV. 



THE SULTAN OF WAD AY. 



197 



proceed from their summer station, Ijherri, in a body 
to gather the dates and figs, which grow there in wild 
luxuriance. They are represented as abounding in 
sweet water, which is obtained in large quantities 
by merely scratching a hole in the sand. I was 
assured that the Koffra contained no monument of 
antiquity, and were mere fertile spots, like some I 
should see on my journey to the east, inhabited only 
by the jackal and wild cow. The Tibbus, as far as I 
could learn, are a timid and inoffensive people, not 
possessing fire-arms, and, except for the pilgrimage 
(they are Moslemin), never visiting Jalo or Siwah. 
With Fezzan they carry on an insignificant trade, 
chiefly in dromedaries (of which they have an excel- 
lent breed) and sulphur, which they exchange on the 
frontier for cotton, cloths, and beads. 

The caravans arriving from Waday reach Gebabo 
in about forty-two days from Warah, and having come 
twelve without water, their camels are so exhausted 
that they stop here, and send to Jalo to hire camels 
to continue the journey to Benghazi ; there they gene- 
rally spend six months, buying cottons, coral, paper, 
and, I think, arms. The Sultan of Waday is himself 
the proprietor of the greater part of the caravan, and 
in the long intervals between its visits, the Frank mer- 
chants lay in stores of such curiosities or elegancies 
as his Wadayan majesty is likely to be pleased with. 



198 WAND E KIN GS IX NOSTH ATEICA. Chap. XIY. 

I heard of a plated dinner service, which had "been 
ordered by one of therm in hopes the caravan might 
arrive this year; at its last departure it conveyed a 
carriage to him. The Sultan is said to have began 
to coin dollars from a die sent to him from Europe ; 
up to a very recent time the entire circulation was in 
Spanish dollars, and writing paper served in lieu of 
smaller coins. A fowl is bought with a sheet of 
writing paper, six or eight are paid for a sheep — the 
most original paper currency. The country is said to 
be rich in pasturage and arable land, and two moun- 
tains yield copper and iron. No European having 
ever visited Waday 3 its other mineral and vegetable 
riches are unknown, though a small quantity of gold 
dust is collected either within its frontiers or from 
the countries to the south. The Sultan claims to be 
a sheikh of the family of the Abassides, and was for 
many years a refugee in Cairo, where he learned to 
appreciate the arts of civilisation. If he still reign, 
it is not improbable that a European would be waimly 
welcomed at his court, but no one could venture there 
without having previously obtained his consent. While 
in Jalo I heard rumours from Eezzan, to the effect, 
that he had grown blind, and had been deposed by 
his son, a blood-thirsty tyrant, who soon made him- 
self so hateful to his vizirs and influential men, that 
they reinstated the father, who is now only a puppet in 



Chap. XIV. 



TEADE OF JALO. 



199 



the hands of one of the rival factions warring for the 
sovereignty. Should these news he confirmed, or in 
the doubts which they suggest, no one could prudently 
venture into Waday.* 

The Turkish Government levies at Jalo heavy duties 
upon the produce of Waday, 25 dollars on the cantar 
of ivory (98 lbs.) — a sum more than its original value, 
and one dollar a head upon the slaves, upon whom a 
further duty of seven dollars and a half is charged at 
Benghazi. Those shipped for Constantinople, how- 
ever, go duty free, the supply of so necessary a com- 
modity for the capital being encouraged in every pos- 
sible way. The Wadayan slaves are amongst the 
least intelligent negroes in Africa, and have the repu- 
tation of being thievishly inclined; they are, there- 
fore, the cheapest, but the profit on their sale is very 
great, their value at Warah hardly exceeding a dollar 
and a half. 

Jalo was decidedly not an amusing residence, and 
my impatience to continue my journey, when I found 
that I could only reach Egypt by way of Siwah, was 
not diminished by the delays which I half suspected 
my friend Yunes of occasioning. In this I did him 

* A description of Waday has been published in French, trans- 
lated from a MS. of the Shiekh Mohammed El Tounsy, who was 
there about 1814, and who still lives in Cairo attached to one of 
the mosques. 



200 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XIV. 



injustice, for, even if lie intentionally sought means 
to put off my departure, after- Occurrences lead me to 
think that he did this in my interest; of his good-will 
I had no idea at the time, and I only felt annoyed at 
being detained, and certain that some intrigue was at 
the "bottom of it. He, every day, expected the arrival 
of his son, who was on his way from Fezzan with a 
few slaves for the Egyptian market, and he wished 
me to accompany him. For this I had little inclina- 
tion, having no wish to join a slave caravan, and, 
above all, desiring to he master of my own move- 
ments — Hoc amo quod possum qualibet ire via. 

I had long exhausted every topic of information 
upon which the Jalese could enlighten me, and my 
only amusement now were the rare visits of the Sheikh 
and Haflz Effendi. At whatever hour they came, the 
coffee which was given to them was never the only 
refreshment they reckoned upon being treated to, and 
they never failed to ask for something stronger. I 
was provided with a small stock of rum for such a 
contingency, being well aware that many of the Turk- 
ish employes are eager votaries of the bottle ; but, be- 
fore my departure from Jalo, my friends had com- 
pletely exhausted my stock ; when they had done so, 
I may add, their visits became less frequent. Besides 
drinking in my tent — not in my company, for I never 
joined them — they thought nothing of asking for a 



Chap. XIV. TURKISH DRUNKARDS. 201 

bottle with which to indulge in a private kef in their 
own quarters — glad to make something out of the 
Frank ; they could not plead the excuse of the bottle 
being a rarity to them, as they were in constant com- 
munication with Benghazi, where the forbidden drink 
is plentiful. With us it is shameful for a man out of 
his teens to be seen drunk; with them it is only a 
sin. One day, during my stay at Grennah, the secre- 
tary to the Government, said to be a most upright 
man, came to see me ; he drank, before, during, and 
after dinner, Marsala and brandy to such an extent, 
that when, at last, wearied with his meaningless loqua- 
city, I insisted upon his going to bed in the tent I 
had prepared for him, he fell flat in the attempt to 
rise from the couch, breaking the bottles he had just 
emptied ; and then it was with difficulty that he al- 
lowed himself to be put to bed by one of my servants. 
The next day he alluded, without an appearance of 
shame, to his evening's exploit, sayiug, if any damage 
was clone, it was not he but the wine that did it. The 
great object in getting drunk, (kef they call it,) is to 
procure the soundness of sleep which follows, and 
hence the pleasantest liquor, in their estimation, is 
that which has the speediest effect. 

T was, in fact, thoroughly tired of my stay in Jalo ; 
and what rendered it particularly exasperating was the 
persuasion which every clay took more strongly hold 

K 3 



202 WANDEEINGS IN NOKTH AFRICA. Chap. XIV 

of me — that I was the victim of a speculation, on the 
part of these people, to detain me, until, tired of wait- 
ing, I should he ready to subscribe to any terms they 
chose to offer me. This idea ouly made me more de- 
termined to refuse what I knew to he an exorbitant 
demand. Hafiz EfTendi possessed no authority, and 
Yunes, if he had any, did not, as I thought, exert it. 
After concluding a bargain for camels, at nearly a 
third more than the usual price, my men returned the 
next morning and tried to extort another dollar ; this 
I refused, and no one, naturally enough, would incur 
the ill-will of his people in defence of a stranger, by 
obliging them to stick to their bargain. Consequently, 
in a fit of unreasonable disgust — unreasonable, for it is 
always better to put up with such annoyances in tra- 
velling than to subject oneself to fresh and perhaps 
more serious ones, only to give proof of a resolution 
which people cannot appreciate — I sent off to Angila 
to ask Shiekh Othman to provide me with camels to 
return there, and to look out for others for my further 
journey. I had now been a month in Jalo, and on 
comparing my expenditure with the state of my purse, 
I discovered to my dismay that, thanks to the dear- 
ness of everything here, I could not start without 
sending to my good friend Mr. Xerri, in Benghazi, 
for a fresh supply of the needful. I must do Yunes 
the justice to say, that when I announced my deter- 



Chap. XIV. INCONVENIENCES OF TEAVEL. 203 

mination, he did all he could to dissuade me from it, 
offering me, after the things were already packed for 
the return to Angila, money, camels, anything. He 
felt that I had come there in a sort of way as his 
guest, and that leaving him as I did was a slur upon 
his hospitality. I persisted, however, in my determi- 
nation, and in the end was punished for it as I de- 
served. I never yet opposed myself to an imposition, 
that I did not end by submitting to at least as great 
a one, and having all the annoyance without the glory 
of martyrdom into the bargain. After each lesson I 
promise myself to consult, in future, my real conve- 
nience, throwing abstract notions of justice to the 
dogs on the next occasion, but I rarely, when the 
temptation comes, am able to resist it. 



CHAPTER, XV. 



The rival Sheikhs. — Weary Days at Angila. — Chain of Oases. — 
Marriage Feasts. — Marriage Gifts. 

With bitter maledictions against the fathers of all 
the Majabra, I saw my luggage loaded to return to 
Angila, and then started with a single servant for the 

district called Tjherri, L$ eighteen miles to the 

north-east. It is a large village of square palm- 
branch huts, lying in the midst of date- trees, and is 
almost deserted at the present moment, as not a dozen 
persons remain in it during the winter ; its situation 
among trees renders it more picturesque than either 
Jalo or Angila, and the trees themselves are remark- 
able as the first specimens I had seen of untrimmed, 
perfectly wild date-trees. The Arabs are too lazy to 
pay the slight attention to the cultivation of the trees 
which the Wagily pay to theirs ; and on many of them 
the dead boughs of the last twenty years could be 
seen drooping in a thick fringe round their stems. I 



Chap. XV. THE RIVAL SHEIKHS. 205 

found that the very few people who still lingered be- 
hind the rest of their tribes, were inveterate laghy 
drinkers, and had stayed behind to indulge in their 
favourite vice. 

The next day I turned backwards south-west to 
Angila, where I was warmly welcomed by Sheikh Oth- 
inan, who could not conceal his pleasure at my apply- 
ing to him, in preference to taking camels from Yunes. 
There had been an old feud between them when Oth- 
man's father was Sheikh of Jalo as well as Angila ; the 
Majabra, however, revolted from his authority, applied 
to the Pacha of Tripoli, and obtained an independent 
government, but not before Yunes, with some of his 
friends, had waylaid and murdered their old sheikh. 
How the quarrel was made up I shall afterwards have 
occasion to tell. Othman pretended that I was not 
the first victim of the insolence of the Majabra, as the 
last Turkish commissioners of the census had been 
treated still worse, and had only been enabled to re- 
turn to Benghazi through his means. Othman el 
Fadil is a perfect specimen of an African Sheikh- el- 
bilad, the most despicable combination of cringing 
servility and insolent tyranny that barbarism has pro- 
duced. These good qualities in him are combined 
with extreme cunning and no small amount of natural 
talent. After being despoiled of his hereditary autho- 
rity, he made shift to repossess himself of it ; he even 



206 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XY. 

managed to resist the authority of the Turkish Pacha 
of Tripoli, after the deprivation of the last native 
Governor ; and he now contrives hy art rather than 
violence to maintain himself in his position. He is 
probably wealthy, for half the cultivated land in the 
oasis "belongs to him, and he has also possessions in 
Jalo and in Fezzan. As a proof of his shrewdness, I 
may mention, that since the death of the last Cadi, 
which took place fifteen years ago, he has persuaded 
the people to do without this functionary, so that all 
marriages and other contracts are now made in his 
presence. He gains immensely in influence hy this 
arrangement, and the people probably do not lose hy 
it ; for as the appointment of the Cadi is in the hands 
of the Cadi of Trip oh, who buys his office in Con- 
stantinople, and as he in turn sells all the posts de- 
pending upon him, it is not improbable that the pur- 
chaser sells the justice he dispenses. 

During my long stay here, his attentions were, after 
his fashion, unceasing; he rarely omitted paying at 
least one visit a day to my tent, and frequently sent 
supplies of vegetables, or fresh baked bread, or new 
drawn laghy, for all which he took care to exact hand- 
some payment, asking for and carrying off everything 
he saw which struck his fancy, which was a most mis- 
cellaneous one. He pretended that he could speak 
four of the languages of the interior, as well as Turk- 



Chap. XV. WEAEY DAYS AT AN GILA. 207 

ish, but I never cou]d induce him to let me see the 
vocabulary of them, which he said he had drawn up ; 
more than once I had, in other matters, occasion to 
admire the liveliness of his imagination, so that he 
may very possibly be mistaken in his assertions. 
Whatever the amount of his learning, it is unques- 
tioned by his subjects, who look up to him as a pro- 
digy of wisdom. He was particularly fond of taking 
a peep through my sextant, and of astonishing any of 
his people who might be in the tent, by giving them 
explanations of the use of the " Astrolabe," which 
would have astonished Hadley, and been new to Sa- 
witsch. 

Time wore slowly away at Angila, and the fifteen 
days, before whose expiration I had been assured my 
messenger would have returned from Benghazi, had 
passed without bringing any news of him. A dull 
Christmas was to be expected in such a heathen place ; 
but what I was not prepared for was the extreme cold 
of the nights, during which the thermometer some- 
times sank to zero ; and in the long evening, from 
dark till bedtime, I occasionally had as much diffi- 
culty in keeping out the cold, as in finding occupa- 
tion. The Wagily, unless there be a fantasia on foot, 
go early to bed, and the Sheikh's conversation was not 
sufficiently instructive to make me wish for his com- 
pany ; he was shy of speaking about the customs of 



208 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XV. 

his people, and they seem to have preserved no tradi- 
tion of their origin or former history. 

I have already described the oasis of Angila as ex- 
tending in a half circle of about six miles in a hollow, 
around the foot of a range of compacted sand lying 
over a white limestone. In this space is comprised a 
large tract of brown morass, covered with a crust of 
saline earth, beneath which are bitter waters. Such a 
morass is described by Beechey on the coast of the 
Syrtis, and I had reason to respect the propriety of the 
warning given him by his guide, as only a yard from 
the path which runs across it the thin crust gave way 
under my horse, who began to flounder, and was only 
able by a violent effort to extricate himself. In gene- 
ral, the water of the -wells in Angila is very good; the 
salt which it contains being almost imperceptible to a 
person accustomed to that of Jalo. 

I had encamped on a hill used as a burial-ground, 
to the east of the town, and water was drawn for me 
from a well close at hand, which was used to water one 
of the Sheikh's fields. I was astonished one morning, 
soon after I arrived, by finding the water of my sponge 
bath sensibly warm, and, on inquiry, I found that, in- 
stead of standing as usual all night ready for use, it 
had only just been drawn from the well. The thermo- 
meter, when immersed in it, showed, two hours after 
sunrise, a temperature of 74°, while the external air 



Chap. XV. CHAIN OF OASES. 209 

was 52°. Many of the wells have this degree of 
warmth; others are quite cold, and these are either 
brackish or very salt. At some distance from the 
modem town, following the inside of the curve of 
plantations and to the left of it, there are in a small 
field some remains of reticulated brickwork, and the 
ground in the neighbourhood is full of broken pottery. 
What remains is too little to authorise a conjecture as 
to its use. 

Angila is on the caravan road from Fezzan 
to Egypt and Benghazi ; the intermediate stations be- 
tween Angila and Murzuk are Maradah, an oasis 
three days distant, and Zalla as much further on. 
At an hour and a half, on the road to Maradah, which 
follows a north-west direction in leaving Angila, I 
found, at a considerable elevation above the cultivated 
land, a number of small groups of rock of volcanic 
origin, forming an irregular oval like the remains of a 
crater. The rocks are gray and black lava, as heavy 
and compact as basalt. Ten hours before reaching 

Maradah, m\js0 } there is a small oasis, Jabna, &\.o» 9 
and two hours further Hairaigah, tiJLfj^, both in- 
habited by Arabs of the tribes of Hamud and Zowayah. 
In Maradah there is one of those curious wells whose 
water contains a salt, doubtless of iron, which imparts 
to it the property of dyeing cotton and woollen cloths 



210 . WANDE KINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XV. 

black. I think it is Belzoni who mentions the exist- 
ence of such a spring in the little oasis, without, how- 
ever, stating that the stuff to be dyed is first boiled in 
a decoction of bark. There is another well of the 
same kind in Fezzan, at a place called Agar, which, 
like this one at Maradah, is called 'Ain essobagh, or 
the Dyers Well. At Zalla tame ostriches are kept 
in the houses, and it must be in this way that the finer 
feathers, imported into Europe, are obtained, for those 
of birds killed in the chase and brought to market, are 
almost always soiled and broken. A Fezzan Fikhy, 
who came to me while in Siwah, supplied me with one 
other fact concerning Fezzan: the place where sul- 
phur is found is called Wady 'ain Ghadga (^itXi), 
near a hill called 'Angud ten days east of 

Murzuk. 

Whilst I was in Angila two marriages took place, 
one of them that of the Sheikh (only his thirteenth) 
with the daughter of my friend Yunes. She was old 
and a widow; the only attraction I could discover 
seemed to be the relation in which their respective 
fathers had stood to each other, of which I have 
already spoken. The festivities were commenced, 
some evenings before the marriage, with the loud 
shrill cries of women, accompanied by occasional mus- 
ket shots. On inquiry, I was told that all the female 
friends of the bridegroom were assembled in his house, 



Chap. XV. 



MAEEIAGE FEASTS. 



211 



each bringing her mill to help in grinding wheat to 
make bread for the marriage feast. The usual quan- 
tity ground is from six to eight hundredweight, but 
sometimes, if the Sheikh might be believed, as much 
as eighty hundredweight is consumed on such occa- 
sions. This bread is partly sent to the houses of the 
principal people, like our old-fashioned wedding-cake, 
and partly eaten at the feast, which consists chiefly of 
dates and large supplies of lagby. 

The evening before the wedding, the young men and 
boys of the village assembled with all the donkeys which 
they could procure, and, loading them with fine sand 
from the hill where I was encamped, brought it to the 
bridal house, and strewed it in the rooms. In the in- 
tervals between the departure and return of the don- 
keys, the boys who remained danced to the sound of 
their own voices and the beating of a drum ; this drum 
is made of a circle of wood about the size of a tambou- 
rine, on each side of which a gazelle-skin is stretched ; 
it is beaten with a knotted rope. The first marriage 
was that of a young girl, a relation of Othman's, but 
as she belonged to the town, there was nothing remark- 
able in the bridal procession : it was, as usual, accom- 
panied by the Zaghaghit and firing of guns. The arri- 
val of the Sheikh's bride with a cortege, including all 
the men in the place, but none of her own relations, 



212 



WANDEKINGS IN NOETH AFEICA. Chap. XV. 



was a much more solemn affair. She was carried in 
state in a closely-veiled carmout, covered with white 
cotton hangings, round which an old red silk scarf was 
tied; a man on horseback preceded her, carrying a white 
flag. When the cortege arrived in sight of the town, 
several halts were made, during which there were rude 
dancing, firing of muskets, and evolutions of the three 
or four horsemen whom the place furnished. While the 
lady was thus being brought in procession to her new- 
home, the gallant bridegroom was quietly seated in my 
tent looking on, and it was not until the cortege en- 
tered the town that he betook himself to his house. 

Here, when the camel knelt at the door, before the 
howdah containing its precious burthen was removed 
from its back, a sheep's throat was cut over its right 
knee, in manner of sacrifice. The Sheikh, after many 
ineffectual hints which I would not understand, at last 
boldly begged of me a sash woven with gold which he 
had one day see me wear ; this he wished to form part 
of the corbeil, and in letting him have it I took the 
opportunity of inspecting the ornaments destined for 
the bride. They consisted of two pairs of broad silver 
bands to be worn as bracelets, weighing respectively 
ten and fourteen ounces, and a pair of very curious 
silver earrings of Tunis make. They were in shape 
like the young moon, two inches and a half in dia- 



Chap. XV. 



MARKIAG-E GIFTS. 



213 



meter, two- thirds of the circumference being covered 
with filigree bosses, from which five pear-shaped fili- 
gree pendents huog, each earring weighing 160 
grammes. I felt a great curiosity to see the cartilage 
capable of supporting such a weight. The marriage 
feast was diversified by dancing to the sound of the 
drum, and a curious double clarionet, formed of the 
leg bones of the eagle or vulture, which discoursed 
sweet music in the tone of a very broken- winded bag- 
pipe. The dancing, like that of the Egyptian Alnach 
(in whom youth, good looks, and sex hardly excuse 
the peculiar style), was here performed by a hideous 
man, and was utterly disgusting. When the bride had 
entered the house, the festivities were terminated by a 
discharge of fire-arms, and the company retired, to 
meet again the next evening, and to renew the eating 
and dancing. 

It is no uncommon thing to find men in these coun- 
tries who have married twenty or thirty times, the sum 
given for a wife rarely exceeding six or eight dollars. 
When tired of a spouse, or if she do not prove fruit- 
ful, a divorce follows as a matter of course, and the 
lady does not suffer in general estimation; having 
borne children seems to be no protection against the 
caprice of the men. This licence is utterly opposed 
to Turkish habits, for divorce is more disreputable to 



214 WANDEEINGS IN NOETH AEEICA. Chap. XV. 

a man among the Osmanli than with us, but the 
assertors of the rights of women in Europe would 
find this regime very congenial to their theories, for a 
woman can always force her husband to a divorce, 
even without laying her slipper at the Cadi's feet. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



Vexatious delay. — Lose the track. — Short commons in the Desert. 
— Genuine Arab hospitality. — En route for Siwah. — Sand valleys. 
— Scene of desolation. — Signs of volcanic action. — Approach 
Siwah. — Sepulchral caves. — Arrive at Siwah. 

January 13. — My messenger returned several days 
ago from Benghazi ; and Sheikh Othman had a 
fortnight before assured me that the camels were 
ready to start with me at a moment's warning; and 
then again, after several days' delay, had promised 
them for this morning, but I saw nothing of them. 
At length, on Saturday morning, Othman, accompa- 
nied by several other persons, came to see the baggage 
tied up and weighed — a long operation, which I has- 
tened as much as I could, being anxious to get away 
from a place of which I was heartily tired. Where 
were the camels all this time? They were at the 
other end of the town, and would be brought up im- 
mediately ; but as soon as all seemed in order for 
starting, my friend Othman went off, saying, that we 
should start with the dawn next morning. I was com- 



216 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XVI. 

pletely in his power, and had nothing for it hut to 
take patience, and the more so, since I now found that 
the camel owners — with whom I had only communi- 
cated through my trusty friend, and to whom he, in 
his anxiety to serve me, had promised an exorbitant 
hire on my part — were, in fact, himself and one of his 
friends. I consoled myself with the idea of taking it 
out of him hy suppressing the backshish I had in- 
tended to give him ; but this was poor consolation for 
the previous days thus lost. 

Sunday, Jan. 16. — The sun had been up for more 
than three hours before the camels came, and then 
there were only six instead of nine. These I had 
loaded and dispatched by a little after midday, having 
been promised that the others should be sent to me in 
half an hour. Hour after hour went by, and I sat 
fretting among the remains of my baggage ; at length 
the day wearing on, I determined to follow the camels 
which had already started, leaving a servant to come 
on with the rest as soon as they arrived. I had found 
out from the people of the place, that the men with 
whom the original bargain was made had been sent 
away, as the Sheikh, finding he could make so profit- 
able an investment, had determined to supply the 
greater number of camels himself; he had not, how- 
ever, yet purchased them all — and hence the delay. 

Half an hour before sunset, no camels appearing, I 



Chap. XVI. LOSE THE TRACK. 217 

mounted my horse and rode off alone, to seek for 
my caravan, and —what I was beginning to feel a great 
want of — my dinner. The road was over gravelly 
sand, and as long as daylight lasted it was easy 
enough to follow the tracks of the camels; hut as 
night closed in, and the sky became overcast with 
fleecy clouds, which obscured the moon and stars, 
the track gradually grew invisible, and I could only 
guess at the right path ; so keeping my horse's head 
as straight as possible, I rode on. There was no 
appearance of fire in any direction, and after four 
hours I found myself among palm-trees, which I 
recognised as those of Jalo. It w T ould have been 
folly to attempt to return to find the road I had de- 
viated from, in the darkness, and it was too late to 
ask for hospitality in Jalo ; I, therefore, tied my horse 
to a tree, and lay down suppeiiess and hungry under 
a palm- bush near him. I was soon asleep ; but, tor- 
mented with thirst, I dreamed of the gurgling streams 
of Damascus, and the water-sellers in the streets of 
Cairo, with their leaf-crowned jars of cool water. 
Their cry, " God's fountain for the thirsty," awoke me, 
and the first sound I heard was the rumbling of water 
in a vase. " Oh, man," I cried, "bring water." There 
was no answer, as my voice fell echoless in the still 
night, and I turned again to sleep, thinking I had 
dreamed; but in another moment I again heard the 

L 



218 "VVANDE KIN GS IN NOETH AFEICA. Chap. XVI. 



sound, and this time I was sure I was awake. I sat 
up and listened ; presently the noise was repeated, and 
then I heard the pawing of my horse, and felt the 
branches of the bush I was lying under shaken. I 
rose, and found that my horse, thirsty as his master, 
and more sagacious than he, had nosed out a vase of 
laghy among the branches ; the booming noise which 
had awoke me being caused by his ineffectual attempts 
to get his head into a jar which had an orifice of 
about an inch. My thirst in the meantime had in- 
creased with my dream, and setting aside all sense of 
the impropriety of theft. I took a draught of the cool 
palm-juice, which, for the first time, seemed to me a 
pleasant beverage, and again lay down, after replacing 
the jar and tying my horse in a position to prevent his 
repeating his vain addresses to the bottle. 

In the gray of the morning, I mounted with the in- 
tention of retracing my steps and joining my caravan, 
but just as I emerged from the palm trees, I saw two 
men and a camel coming from Angila. At this sight 
my malignant star suggested to me the idea of saving 
time, and not returning on my way — a bad omen in 
the beginning of a journey; so I rode up to the new 
comers, asking if either would accompany me to the 
Wadi, the place of rendezvous for caravans starting 
to Siwah ; and one of them saying he knew the way, 
agreed to guide me. I knew that my servant, when he 



Chap. XVI. SHOET COMMONS IN THE DESEET. 219 



saw the camels arrive without me, would at once con- 
clude that I had ridden straight to the Wadi, and 
without a misgiving I rode on. I had eaten nothing 
since an early breakfast on the previous day, and when 
midday came and we were still far from the Wadi, I 
turned to see what store of good things my saddle- 
bags contained. I found in them only a single sea- 
biscuit. Of this I gave half to my conductor, and, 
unable to make any impression on what remained, I 
reserved it till my arrival in the Wadi. We reached 
it at half-past two, but there was no appearance 
of the Cafilah, and I now began to contemplate with 
some dismay the possibility of the Ottoman having 
again broken his word, and having another day to 
wait with my not abundant store of provisions. There 
was at least water here, and this was all I had to give 
my horse and dog ; my tarboush served to draw it, 
and for them to drink out of. The Wadi was here 
and there dotted with tufts of a bright-looking thorny 
grass, and to enable him to pick up a few mouthfuls, 
and at the same time prevent him from going far off, 
I tied my horse's forelegs together, and sent him to 
look for his dinner. 

Meantime my guide had made me a fire, which he 
lighted from the smouldering embers left by a caravan, 
which must have started a few hours before we came up; 
and I then dismissed him, showing the half biscuit which 

L 2 



220 WANDERINGS IN NOETH AFRICA. Chap. XVI. 

remained, as a good reason for his not staying with 
me, while I assured him that my people could not be 
long in coming up. Evening was fast approaching, 
so I ate half the remainder of my biscuit soaked in 
water, gathered sticks to feed my fire, and choosing the 
sheltered side of a palm-bush, looked to my arms and 
arranged my saddle and saddle-cloth, so as to make 
something which I persuaded myself was a bed. I 
had not even a cloak, as in a fit of carefulness for my 
steed I had removed it to save him the weight, never 
reckoning on such a contingency as the present; the 
only additional covering I had to the white trowsers 
and jacket I wore, was one of those light india-rubber 
overcoats, bearing a barbarously meaningless name, 
such as the classic public of the Strand delights in. 
The sky was bright and clear, and the air proportion- 
ately cold. I had no provisions, no wine, no brandy, 
no covering, not even a cigar, but I had a chronome- 
ter, a sextant, a compass, a thermometer, a telescope, 
in fact a whole observatory of instruments to console 
me for the want of a dinner, and I was thus enabled 
to certify, that at dawn the thermometer marked 43°; 
and the sharp air, contrasted with the heat of the sun 
during the previous day, made this seem still more 
piercingly cold. 

In one point at least I am a true Englishman, for 
I can brook anything better than the want of my 



Chap. XVI. GENUINE ARAB HOSPITALITY. 



221 



" victuals ; " next to this the most painful feeling I 
know is that of inaction. I had had enough of my 
two days' fast, and in the morning I thought to avoid 
further endurance of either evil by mounting my poor 
horse and going back, somewhere or other; my am- 
bition in fact was to keep moving. The old gray, 
knowing my temper pretty well, after an eight months' 
acquaintance, had probably foreseen this ; he woke 
me half a dozen times during the night by rubbing 
his nose against my legs, by way of asking how I felt, 
and at last getting some cross words for disturbing 
me, had made himself scarce. As far as the telescope 
could command he was not to be seen, and I was in 
no humour for a tramp in search of him through the 
loose sand. The morning wore heavily, a quarter of 
my biscuit still remained, but I reserved it with 
an idea of keeping rather than eating my cake, while 
from time to time I took a look to see if " anybody 
was coming." At last I saw a spot moving in the 
distance, a single man, but so wrapped in his borneau 
that I could not distinguish him. He came straight 
towards me, and then I recognised him as my guide 
of the previous day, who had brought me a basket of 
dates, some corn for my horse, and two pieces of stick 
to kindle a fire. I sat down on the sand with the 
basket before me, he sitting in true Arab style of hos- 
pitality at a little distance to see me eat, and while I 



222 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XVI. 

picked out a few dates without relish (appetite was 
gone, and I fancied them dirty), he told me why he 
had returned. It was midnight when he reached his 
cottage in Jalo ; his mother got up, made him a fire, 
and gave him something to eat while he told her how 
he had spent his day. He then lay down to sleep, 
but his mother said to him, " My son, this is no time 
for sleep ; my heart is troubled for the man in the 
Wadi ; rise and go to him, for he is alone, and I fear 
robbers; carry him these dates, for he is hungry." 
Abd-er-rahman started afresh and reached me about 
ten in the morning, having hardly rested during forty- 
eight hours. When he had seen me eat, he went to 
the well and washed, and then employed himself in 
gathering date-stones in the sand round the fire-places 
of previous caravans. I was puzzled to see him 
thus groping in the earth, and visions of truffles, 
which I had read of in Theophrastus as being found 
in this desert, rose before me. Were I given to the 
vice of gourmandise, as those whose palates are not 
gifted with discrimination call the sense of taste, I 
could not have hastened with more alacrity to join in 
the search ; but my disappointment was great, when I 
found that he was only gathering old date-stones, 
which he pounded and then gave, mixed with straw and 
water, to his cousin's cow. 

In about four hours, the caravan and my horse, which 



Chap. XVI. 



EN ROUTE FOR SIWAH. 



223 



had gone to join it, arrived, and I learned, as I had 
anticipated, that this fresh delay was due to my 
Sheikh, from whom, however, I thought that I was 
now pretty safe. But he had still a trick of villany 
in store for me, for when the camels came to load (and 
they carried less weight on account of the water I 
should require during the first days), his people refused 
to carry water unless I paid half a dollar a skin extra. 
I had no resource, as I was still too near Jalo to force 
them to move on against their will, but to submit, 
which I did with secret vows to have them punished 
in Siwah for the imposition. I little guessed what 
would be my reception there. 

It was twelve when I started from the Wadi after 
filling a dozen skins at its well, whose water is " sweet 
as those of heaven," as Abd-er-rahman poetically 
called rain, though the sand from which it springs is 
mixed with crystals of common salt, admirably white 
and pure. For an hour and a half the ground is 
dotted thickly with hillocks of the Tumaran, of which 
each camel received a bundle in passing, as during 
some days little or no wood is to be found on the road. 
This is a low-growing woody plant with spare short 
fleshy leaves, whose thick twisted roots creep over the 
sand near its surface, forming low mounds. It is 
thornless, is easily torn up in large pieces, and though 
alive and in leaf, burns with a clear bright flame. 



224 WANDEEINGS IN NOETH AFEICA. Chap. XVI. 

Much, of the petrified wood found in parts of the 
desert is formed of Tumeran, which even in its living 
state seems to be undergoing the process of petri- 
faction, as long veins of red brown earth run through 
its roots. Six hours after starting, travelling through 
fine loose sand in a N.E. direction, we reached a lofty 
sand-hill, the ground at whose base is sprinkled for a 
considerable distance with dark gravel and fragments 
of black half- vitrified stone. Many parts of this desert, 
seen in a bright sun, seemed perfectly flat, but as day 
closed in, and the shadows lengthened, the gentle 
undulations of the sand became visible. For ten 
hours we continued our course over a nearly flat 
country, gradually trending to the north, when we 
came to a long line of low hills, among which we were 
soon engaged. It is here that the two roads to Siwah 
separate ; that which I took is the longer, but is easier 
for the camels ; the other is the one more usually fol- 
lowed by the slave- dealers, and the same followed by 
Hornemann ; it is preferred as being further removed 
from the haunts of the Aoulad Ali Arabs. 

In gentle swells, these hills ultimately reach a con- 
siderable height. Journeying over such ground is 
singularly fatiguing, for the sand offers no variety to 
the eye, which is pained by the intense glare which it 
reflects, and the horse sinks in it to the fetlocks at 
every step. Nothing marked the road, which is very 



Chap. XVI. SAND VALLEYS. 225 

rarely used, and a slight wind suffices to obliterate 
every trace of former travellers. No caravan had 
passed this way to Mecca for three years, in conse- 
quence of disturbances among the Tuarick, to whom 
this country principally belongs. Thus we continued 
during fifteen hours and a quarter, constantly ascend- 
ing between two lines of low hills, which rose on either 
side like waves driven from opposite directions. By this 
I mean that they rise on one side in long gentle swells 
and fall very suddenly on the other, forming an angle 
of about 70°, while eight or ten feet of their crests are 
on this, one would say the lee side, perfectly perpen- 
dicular. But the action of the wind, to which this 
appearance is doubtless due, is such, that in this place 
the lee side of each sand-wave faces that of the other, 
forming a valley between them, bounded on each side 
by steep sand. My greyhounds enjoyed themselves 
famously in running along the crests of these hills, 
and then rolling and tumbling down their steep sides ; 
but after a couple of days of such gambols, the sand 
began to distress their feet, and they were glad to 
mount a camel during the greater part of the remain- 
ing journey. 

It was on the afternoon of the third day, that, send- 
ing on the servant who had waited on me at luncheon, 
I stayed behind to smoke a chibouque, and having a 
supply of tobacco beside me I thoughtlessly protracted 

L 3 



226 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XVI. 



this amusement beyond a due time. When I at last 
started I rode straight for the passage, between some 
distant hills, where I had last seen the caravan, but 
soon I found that I had lost the track. At the height 
I had then reached, the wind blew so strongly, that, 
in exposed places, the footsteps were speedily effaced, 
and for an hour I wandered sufficiently to convince 
me how easy it would be to lose oneself in the sand. 
Evening was not far distant, and I was on the point 
of returning to my noon-day resting-place, but deter- 
mined first to try one cast more. With this intent I 
rode directly at right angles to my course, and happily 
came upon the tracks of the camels. I soon reached 
the base of a peak round which they had gone, and, 
turning it, I beheld the most extraordinary scene of 
desolation. 

I found myself standing on the ledge of an oval 
basin, some five or six miles long, whose sides were 
formed of stratified rocks, of a bluish gray colour, in 
their horizontal layers; across ran low dykes of the 
same laminar construction, the upper layers being 
generally of a blackish stone, but all bearing the ap- 
pearance of vitrifaction. The dykes ran in lines parallel 
to the minor axis of the ellipse, and one might almost 
have supposed it the ruins of a construction on a 
gigantic scale, like that called Solomon's Pool, near 
Bethlehem. Excepting at points where the rocks crop 



Chap. XYI. 



SCENE OF DESOLATION. 



227 



out, the bottom of the basin was filled with sand ; piles 
of stones, memorials of former caravans, erected on 
the dykes ; many skeletons, both of men and camels, 
bleached white as the purest ivory, pointed out the 
path which I must follow. Night closed in while I 
was still in this lonely valley ; and it was with some 
pleasure that I heard the signal guns, which were fired 
from time to time, to direct me to the halting place. 
At sunset, as I had not been seen for six hours, the ca- 
ravan was halted, although it had only made ten hours 
and a half journey that day. The Arabs call this 
place the Gerdobiah, or Little Gerdebah, &J$Jb, to 
distinguish it from the great range of this name, which 
commences two hours and a half further on. A ridge 
of round-backed sandhills forms the separation be- 
tween the Gerdobiah and the immense range of low 
dark hills and table-lands which here presents itself. 
A low line of sandstone rocks, with nearly perpendi- 
cular sides, bound the line of road, sometimes closing 
upon it, sometimes leaving a wide plain on either side. 
In the basins thus formed rocks rise frequently, in the 
form of low truncated cones, generally in two steps, 
one rising from the other, so like diminutive craters, 
that in referring to this day's journey ray servant 
always calls them, " les Vesuves" The black appear- 
ance of the ground is caused by numberless fragments 
of flat, dark, flint-like, coarse, broken glass, with which 



228 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XVI. 



the sand and rocks are covered ; among them are many 
pieces of petrified palm-wood; and, in some places, I 
found four or five feet of the trunk of the tree still 
standing erect as it grew : while, in more than one 
instance, large fragments of the tree, like the debris of 
a "broken column, lay scattered round. In one spot, I 
found the trunk of such a tree (judging from its form 
at the base) in the position and place where it grew, 
and lying alongside of it, fragments of its stem, in all 
more than twenty feet long ; the fractures of each of 
these corresponded to those on either side of it. It 
would seem from this that the trees were petrified as 
they grew, and that their general prostration is due to 
some convulsion which followed the withdrawal of the 
petrifying waters in which they had been immersed. 
I believe these trees to be, many of them, date palms, 
such as grow in the oases at the present day ; they are 
similar in appearance ; and so were some petrified date- 
stones, which I found, to their stones. It took in all 
twenty- six hours to traverse this line, which, judging 
from the cold, must be at a very considerable elevation. 
The south wind blew so bleakly that even at midday 
a cloak was a welcome addition to the borneau. In 
the mornings and evenings the thermometer was rarely 
above 43°, and at midday, notwithstanding the bright 
sun, I twice found it only 45°. 

Towards the last part of the Gerdebah I observed 



Chap. XVI. SIGNS OF VOLCANIC ACTION. 



229 



large masses of beautifully-marked agate, of a coarse 
crystalline grain, with colours more vivid than the 
Sicilian. Descending into a plain of sand, the next 
landmark is a lofty cone, called Gar Hhot, Cj^A^, 
some sixty or seventy feet high, which rising abruptly 
from the level, is seen at a great distance. It was 
formerly a stronghold of the Aoulad Ali, who from 
it descended to pillage the Majabra caravans. The 
tombs of seven or eight Majabra, who were killed in 
one of their raids some forty years ago, are at the base 
of the hill ; but this was the robbers' last exploit, for 
the Majabra are said to have come in overwhelming 
numbers, and to have overpowered them. I will not 
answer for the truth of the story which was told me 
by my guide, whose grandfather was among the slain ; 
for in my experience of timid people, I must do the 
Majabra of the present generation the justice to say, 
that I never met with any who had so strong a regard 
for their personal safety. Along this line they never 
light fires during the night, for fear of attracting the 
Arabs, and for the same reason they frequently diverge 
from the direct hue of journey ; their cargoes of human 
merchandise being, it is said, very attractive to the 
Arabs. However this may be, I have no complaint to 
make of the dangers of the road: every night two 
large fires were kindled in my encampment, yet I was 
never molested, nor during the whole journey saw the 



230 



WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XVI. 



trace of man, excepting in the case of one small slave 
caravan, which I came up with the day after passing 
Gar Hhot, at the first well we reached, called Maten 



the well of the Wady. 

This place was visited by Hornemann, and is the 
only spot in which my route. (which is the one followed 
by the great pilgrim caravans) coincides with the more 
southerly one. The slave caravan, which I came up 
with here, continued to follow Hornemann's route. 
Near the place I found some palm trunks upright, 
imbedded in reddish, coarsely crystallised flint. The 
sand is in great part composed of debris of small 
marine 'shells, and the limestone rocks from here to 
Siwah are filled with fossils. A considerable descent 
from the high ground we had been traversing, crossing 
several hills and valleys, which grow gradually more 
sandy as we advanced, leads to a valley clothed with 
gum bushes. From it rises a platform of soft, white 
limestone rock ; and it is in tins that the wells of 
brackish water called Et-Tarfawy are pierced. The 
white platform is picturesquely crowned with a garland 
of the bright-green 'ajrum bushes, which grow some- 
what like a broom. Here we watered our camels, and 
then went an hour and a half further to a hattych (a 
copse) called Bou el Lawah, £^1. The wind, which 
had blown for several days constantly from the south, 




It is seventy-four hours from 



Chap. XVI. APPKOACH SIWAH. 231 

shifted for a few hours to the north, and was gratefully 
warm ; heavy rains speedily followed, during which it 
again veered to the south. 

From here to Siwah I was six days on the road, but 
one day I was only able to travel five hours ; in fact, I 
never again got a fair day's work out of my camels, for 
Sheikh Othman, after making me pay so dearly for 
them, sent them with so small a supply of food, that 
they successively dropped off, one after another, ex- 
hausted from sheer hunger. I cannot, therefore, state 
the distance exactly, but as nearly as I can calculate, 
from Et-Tarfawy to Siwah is forty-eight hours. The 
road runs through a succession of small oases, of which 
the first is Faredrah, ^tX-^J, twelve hours from Et- 
Tarfawy. Among sandhills one descends very sud- 
denly into a long basin, which is occupied by a dark 
brown morass, like that which I met with at Angila ; 
it is bounded on three sides by time-worn rocks, which 
rise perpendicularly round it, a fringe of palm trees 
growing about their base. The Arabs pointed out a 
place in the rocks, on the other side of the morass, in 
which they said the ruins of a castle were to be seen. 
Now this, like the other spots of the same nature 
which I passed through, is uninhabited. The largest 
and prettiest of these is Caicab, twelve hours further 
on. Here the rocks of variegated limestone assume a 
bolder appearance, rising from forty to a hundred feet 



232 WANDERINGS IN NOETH AFRICA. Chap. XVI. 



in fantastic masses, looking in the distance sometimes 
like noble cities, sometimes like extensive ruins. There 
is one valley where columns, with their capitals of 
gigantic proportions, rise from mounds of sand — half 
buried palaces and temples seemed in the moonlight 
to make the former the abode of giants. From the 
uniform abruptness of the sides of the rocks, though 
weather-worn and varied in colour by the different 
strata, it would seem that these morasses had been 
formed by a suddenly falling in of the crust ; for the 
flat tops of all the surrounding rocks have the same 
level with the desert and with each other, and the wall 
of rock is only found on the side turned to the morass. 
In a Wady some twelve hours further on I found wells 
of a clear water, in very small quantity, but which, 
after the first draught had been taken from it, filled 
again by rapid infiltration from the sand, but this 
second supply had a strong sulphurous smell and taste, 
which were not perceptible in the first. The morass, 
the universal feature of these oases, was here a wide 
lake of a deep blue, inclosed in a ring of brown crust, 
overgrown with rushes, and a tall, rank grass, of which 
the camels eagerly plucked the flowering tops. The 
name of this place is El Ghazalieh, the Gazelle 
Ground, and though now deserted, it must in ancient 
times have been inhabited. Sepulchral chambers, en- 
tirely devoid of ornament, but well and regularly cut, are 



Chap. XVI. 



SEPULCHRAL CAVES. 



233 



hollowed out in the faces of the rocks. Each open- 
ing, of ahout four feet square, corresponds to a cubical 
aperture of seven feet, in two sides of which — in that 
facing the door, and in that generally to the left — are 
cut receptacles for the dead. I counted twenty- three ; 
but there may he many more, which, being sanded up, 
escaped my observation. Most of them are as empty 
as if they had never been occupied; but in some of 
these deserted abodes of death the wild bee has stored 
her sweets. We made a long halt in this place, for 
the camels had to be watered, and I had to dress as 
well as to breakfast, for the guide having lost his way, 
we had gone supperless to bed, being unprovided with 
either wood or water. This had twice occurred to me, 
and each time I had promised myself never again to 
be without at least one skin of water ; but though my 
orders were no doubt attended to during the first few 
days, it always happened that, when the precaution 
would have proved useful, it had been neglected. In 
my luggage I had wherewithal to supply every defi- 
ciency but this ; and the want of this, however little 
I care for the pure fluid, is fatal to all hopes of sup- 
ping. 

This was the last day before reaching Siwah ; and, 
again, I was sadly delayed through the miserable con- 
dition of the camels supplied by my rascally sheikh 
of Augila. One after another they dropped, unable 



234 WANDE EIX GS IN NOETH AFRICA. Chap. XVI. 

to proceed, and I was obliged to leave them, and the 
boxes they carried, in the sand. Unable to get fur- 
ther, we slept on a hill, at whose foot I beheld next 
morning a garden-like expanse — a real island of the 
blest. A stream, the first running water I had seen 
since quitting the Khone, flowed down its centre ; the 
ground on either side was green with young crops, 
among which rose clumps of date-trees and flowering 
mimosas. Some cabins dotted the extensive plain, 
and men and children were busily employed in irri- 
gating the fields ; the very water, perfectly sweet, after 
the thirst- exciting draughts to which we had been for 
some time condemned, seemed delicious ; and, per- 
haps, by contrast with the barren sand we had so 
tediously journeyed through, this valley, towards 
Moragah, &3\jso, seemed one of the loveliest spots I 
had ever visited. I welcomed the exhilarating im- 
pression which it made upon me, as a foretaste of the 
enjoyment reserved for me in Siwah, from which we 
were now only six hours distant, and I began to be- 
lieve my Majabra guide might not be wrong in his 
daily assurances that it was a Belad Mabruk, an abode 
of blessedness. 

After leaving Moragah, the loose sand again re- 
appears for about an hour, leading to the lofty rocks 
of Kamisah, at whose base are the ruins called 'Amu- 
dein, which consist of two lofty masses of brick 



Chap. XVI. AEEIYE AT^SIWAH. 235 

work, the facade of a temple, or perhaps of a church, 
for the style of building betrays a late date. One of 
the two salt lakes of the oasis lies at the foot of Ka- 
mi sah, and I stopped for an hour at a well of sweet 
water which springs at its edge, to rest the last of 
Othman's camels, which here threatened to drop. The 
hill of the mummies, Garah-el-Musabberin, and the 
village of Gharmy, where the principal ruins are, were 
visible from here, as well as the position, though not 
the town, of Siwah. I sent on the camels, retaining 
only one servant with me ; soon following them, I 
found that one of the camels had again lagged behind 
the others. I therefore stopped, and spreading a car- 
pet in the shade of a tree, I sat down, having first 
sent a servant into the town to Sheikh Yusuf, whom 
my slave-dealer acquaintance had named to me as the 
chief man of the place, to obtain donkeys to trans- 
port the luggage of the camel. Here I sat alone for 
two hours, until the sun had set, and began at length 
to reflect on the uncertainty of Arab accounts of dis- 
tances ; the town might still be two or three hours off, 
and with a strong determination to dine to-night, hav- 
ing been on short commons for the last four days, I 
left the camel where it was, and rode towards the 
town. Night closed in before I had come upon any 
well-marked path, and I was beginning to feel some 



236 



WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XVI. 



perplexity as to the road, when I luckily came upon 
the servant I had dispatched to Yusuf's, and one of 
the men who accompanied him turned to guide me to 
my tent, while he went back to bring up the remainder 
of the luggage. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



Encampment at Siwah. — Conference with the Sheikhs. — Refuse to 
quit Siwah.— Attack on the tents. — Detained at Siwah. — Incidents 
while Imprisoned. — Defensive Preparations. — A South Wind 
hlows Good Luck. — Manners, &c, of the People. — Their^ Appear- 
ance and Dress. — An Industrious Eace. 

It was soon perfectly night ; the ground seemed to 
be cut up with ditches, and it was only by keeping 
close to my guide, as he trotted along on his donkey, 
that I could make out the road. After about half an 
hour, the guide jumping off his donkey, said to me, 
" Now you are going up hill," and before I knew what 
I was doing, unable to see an inch before me in the 
darkness, I found my horse clambering up what seem- 
ed to be the face of a precipice ; in about five minutes 
more, I found myself riding among walls ; presently, my 
guide stopping, began to call out, " Yusuf! Yusuf !" 
and thus I found that instead of taking me to my 
tent, he had brought me to the sheikh's. After some 
delay a door was opened ; and a longer time elapsed 
before a flaring palm-branch was brought to light me ; 



238" WANDERINGS IN NOETH AFRICA. Chap. XVII. 

and then I was conducted, through all sorts of tor- 
tuous passages to a small room, where the sheikh and 
two young men were seated on mats, before a blazing 
fire of olive wood. He received me very cordially, 
told me that my tents were ready, and that whatever I 
required I should get through him. I thanked him 
and accepted his offers, giving him at the same time 
to understand, that I would take nothing as a pre- 
sent, and that all I required should be paid for. He 
said that the servant I had sent to him had already 
told him this. 

These preliminaries being settled, there was a pause, 
which he broke after looking steadily at my head for 
some time, by saying, " Where 's your hat ?" I 
thought I had misunderstood, and begged he would 
favour me by repeating his remark. He gravely re- 
iterated, " Where 's your hat ? " After the hearty fit 
of laughter which so droll a question as this seemed 
to me produced, I told him that, for the moment, I 
did not keep such an elegant luxury in my establish- 
ment ; but this seemed to puzzle him sorely, for a hat 
was evidently, in his eyes, one of the chief articles of 
the Christian faith. " Have you brandy, wine, ro- 
solio, tea ?" I began to think that he was making a 
mental inventory of the good things he meant to ask 
for, though I afterwards found it was mere curiosity to 
find out whether I was as abundantly supplied with 



Chap. XVII. ENCAMPMENT AT S1WAH. 239 

these good things, as were my last predecessors at 
Siwah. 

This cross-examination began to tire me, so I took 
leave of him ; but before I retired he invited me to 
return in the morning, promising then to provide me 
with a guide to see all the curiosities of Siwah. I 
promised to come early, but explained that by early I 
did not mean early as he understood it, for, when not 
travelling, I do not rise till two hours after the sun. 
" Oh ! " he answered, " drunk with araki ;" meaning, 
that I lay in bed to sleep off the effects of the intem- 
perance he gave me credit for ; when I assured him 
that I had never in my life been drunk. " Do you, 
then, never drink wine or araki ? " seemed to be the 
only solution for the wonder which his experience 
could suggest. We parted very good friends, and I 
proceeded to my tent. The night was still too dark 
for anything but the fires to be visible, and it was only 
the next morning that I obtained an idea of our 
position. 

I was encamped on a very wide plain to the south of 
the town ; to the right was an extensive palm grove 
with a few clumps in front of the principal plantation, 
the nearest about a hundred yards off; behind and to 
the left rose some limestone rocks, and near them a 
square building, the castle, in which a garrison was 
formerly lodged. In front, the town rose like a lofty 



240 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFEICA. Chap. XVII. 

fortress, built on a conical rock, entirely concealed by 
the bouses, which, joining one another, seem to form a 
single many-storied edifice. To the west of this, an- 
other rock or gara, quarried with numerous caverns, 
rises to a considerable height ; on one side of the rock, 
and in the space between it and the town proper, 
houses, in the ordinary style of mud architecture, are 
built. 

It was here that Yusuf 's house, the largest in the 
place, was built, leaning against the hill, and I now 
proceeded there to obtain the guide he had promised 
me. I was received in a room open to the street, in 
which a large crowd was assembled. Yusuf imme- 
diately began, in a tone very different to that of the 
preceding evening, to tell me the old story : that the 
people did not choose that I should enter their town, 
or see their wells, which my incantations might dry 
up, and that they insisted upon my immediate depar- 
ture. In the room, seated round the walls, were 
several stupid-looking men, who, he told me, were the 
sheikhs of the place, over whom he had no authority — 
his influence being confined to that part of the rock 
which he inhabited, since his deposition some years 
before. He tried hard to render the decision of the 
town council (the Mejlis) palatable to me by frequent 
assurances, that the Siwyah have no sense. " No 
sense ! no sense !" he shouted into my ears, as if I had 



Chap. XYII. CONFERENCE WITH THE SHEIKHS. 241 

been deaf. " They must learn sense, or buy it," was 
my answer, "for since I am come here, you cannot 
treat me in this way ; it is contrary to the rights of 
hospitality and the laws of your country. I am an Eng- 
lishman. There is my passport, the English sultan's 
firman, better than 'Abd el Mejid's or any other in the 
world, more respected by Abbas Pacha and 'Abd el 
Mejid himself than their own. I ask to enter no man's 
house. I shall not run away with your wives, nor eat 
your children; but I have a right to go by every 
public path ; to see all I want to see of the old ruins 
in your country ; and if you, the sheikhs, prevent me, 
you must be prepared to take the consequences ; and 
if any one insults or molests me, he has only himself 
to blame for what may happen to him." 

I had gone unarmed, but I now sent down to my 
tent for a pair of revolvers, and after making Yusuf 
admire their construction, I had them placed in the 
holsters of my saddle. "You ask me what is my 
business here ? I am a traveller from the west going to 
Cairo, through the Sultan's and Pacha's dominions; 
you are their subjects. Your own laws, the laws of 
Islam, give me full right to travel in your country ; the 
treaties with the Sultan guarantee me protection ; you 
are responsible to the Pacha, and he must answer to 
my country for anything that befals me here." I now 
mounted my horse and was riding away, when the 

M 



242 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XYII. 

Mufti arrived, and I returned, at Yusuf's earnest re- 
quest, to explain myself to him. He was an irresolute, 
shuffling old man, apparently afraid to speak above a 
whisper, but unable to deny the truth of what I said. 
Yusuf then returned to the charge with shouts of " No 
sense ! no sense !" in which he was joined by all the 
sheikhs, who pretended to lament the ignorance and 
stupidity of their rayahs, while the Mufti seemed very 
anxious to get me into a religious discussion, which I 
was not foolish enough to engage in. By this time 
the room was pretty full, all the great men of the 
place, excepting two of the sheikhs and the Cadi, who 
had refused to pollute their eyes with the sight of the 
Christian, being assembled there. The street also in 
front was crowded with the curious, who stared as if 
they never could see enough of me ; but they did not 
interrupt the discussion. 

Seeing that the plea of stupidity did not turn me 
from my point, they now changed their tone ; and one 
of them, whose insolent air had from the first been 
very offensive, gave me to understand that I could not 
be allowed to defile their blessed country with my pre- 
sence, and that the best thing I could do would be to 
return quietly to my tent, shut myself up there, and 
get camels as quickly as possible to pursue my jour- 
ney. "Four hawajahs came here from Alexandria 
some years ago, we fired upon them, after forbidding 



Chap. XVII. REFUSE TO QUIT SIWAH. 243 

our people to have any intercourse with them, and 
they went away next morning, vowing vengeance in- 
deed, but nothing came of it." " I am not a hawajah, 
and I do not mean to run away ;" then, turning to the 
Mufti, I added, " nor will there, I am sure, be any 
reason for me to do so. I only want to see the old 
ruins of your country, and then, without having done 
injury to any one, I shall pursue my journey." So we 
bandied about the same arguments for at least three 
hours, when at last it was agreed that before going to 
Omen Beydah I should wait till midday next day to 
give them time to persuade their people not to molest 
me ; and that my time might not be lost, Yusuf was 
to send me in the morning a man to accompany me to 
a hot well near the high hill, which lies to the south of 
the town. I had now no doubt that I had carried my 
point, and returned to dine in great spirits, persuaded 
that I had vanquished the opposition, trusting to the 
well-known timidity and gentleness of the Egyptian 
Fellah, and the activity Mehemet Ah had always dis- 
played in punishing violence offered to travellers. I 
found my cook, a black, whom I had brought with me 
from Dernah, in a terrible fright, for some of the 
people had told him, when he went into the town to 
buy some provisions, that they were coming to rob me 
during the night. I laughed at his fears, quoting to 
him the saying, ' Forewarned, forearmed/ 

M 2 



244 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFEICA. Chap. XYTI. 

After dinner, I was smoking my chibouque and 
marking in my note-book the little I bad observed or 
heard during the day, when three shots were fired, the 
balls passing with a loud whistling through my tent 
just over my head. At first I thought little of the in- 
cident, believing that it was a rough joke meant to 
frighten me; so I merely looked at my watch and 
noted the circumstance in my note-book. It was per- 
fectly dark, and from the door of my tent nothing was 
visible, nor should I have thought more of it but for 
the violent barking of my dog, which showed that it 
heard people, who were invisible to me. I sent a ser- 
vant, therefore, to Yusuf's to acquaint him with what 
had passed, and soon after he was gone, the firing 
recommenced. I now began to think the affair more 
serious than I had supposed ; I heard one gun hang 
fire close to my tent, and, turning, saw its muzzle 
pressed against the wall of the tent on the shadow of 
my head ; I therefore had all the lights put out, and 
went cautiously out to get a view of my assailants. 
The night was so black that this was impossible, but it 
also favoured my evasion ; after counting eleven vol- 
leys, which gave me grounds to suspect that there was 
a numerous body of men in the date-trees to the right, 
I, with my servant, went up to the sheikh Yusufs 
house, abandoning the tents to their fate. Moving 
cautiously across the plain, which separated us from 



Chap. XVII. 



ATTACK ON THE TENTS. 



245 



the town, and climbing the steep street which led to 
his house, we could still see the fire of the enemy's 
guns, and the more frequent flashes in the pan, to 
which we probably owed our escape. 

The servant whom I had sent there had returned, 
saying that he could not make himself heard at 
Yusuf's, but when we reached the door a vigorous 
application of the butt-end of my rifle roused him ; 
having admitted me, I told him what had happened, 
adding, that I should stay with him till morning. 
He immediately sent some of his people to protect 
the tents, which they found had not been entered, 
though there were seven shots in the one in which I 
had passed the day, and one shot had passed imme- 
diately over the place where I was reclining when the 
attack commenced ; had I been sitting up instead of 
lounging, it could not have missed me. By one of 
those strange chances which one feels to be provi- 
dential, I had just after sunset ordered a larger tent 
to be pitched, in which to dine and sleep ; I had been 
all the morning in a small umbrella one, at which the 
shots were principally aimed, and to this circumstance 
must my escape be ascribed. 

I spent the night in Yusuf's house, and the next 
day he gave me a small one, containing three rooms, 
opposite his own, in which to stay as long as might 



246 WANDERINGS IN NOETH AFRICA. Chap. XYII. 

be necessary. One of these rooms was built on the 
roof, with a sort of terrace before it ; we were stand- 
ing upon this, after viewing my intended abode, when 
our attention was attracted to a large body of, per- 
haps, four or five hundred men, most of them armed, 
who were in march with a flag, and several camels 
against my tents. The rumour had been spread in 
the town that the Christian was not dead, and the 
entire male population of the Lifayah had gone against 
him, with camels to carry off the spoil. They found 
the tents closed, and no appearance of any one near 
them, but they thought I and my Frank servant were 
inside. It was long before they ventured to approach, 
for the camel men, who had come with me from An- 
gila, had given a wonderful description of the num- 
ber and power of my arms ; at last, some bolder than 
the rest, went up and tore aside the curtain of the 
umbrella tent in which I was supposed to be. Mean- 
while, Yusuf had sent for some of the sheikhs, and 
assuring them that anything stolen would have to be 
replaced ten-fold by the town, he induced them to go 
to the rescue of my baggage. This they succeeded 
m effecting, and returned in a few hours to tell me 
that everything was safe, and to ask for a certificate 
to that effect. I refused to take their word for it, and 
at their urgent solicitation, accompanied by them, I 



Chap. XVII. 



DETAINED AT SIWAH. 



247 



rode down to the plain, which was now quite solitary. 
Everything was in strange confusion, but nothing had 
been taken away. 

Seeing the turn things had taken, I now determined 
to continue my journey at once, promising myself to 
return to Siwah with an escort from the Viceroy, as 
soon as I should arrive in Egypt. But if the Sewiyah 
had given me so warm a reception, they had no wish 
to lose the advantage of my company; and, there- 
fore, by threats prevented any of the Arabs, of whom 
great numbers were now in Siwah, from hiring me 
camels. I then proposed to Yusuf to leave my bag- 
gage in his charge, if he would procure me a sufficient 
number of donkeys to mount my servants, and carry 
a few skins of water and provisions ; but he declared 
that, without camels, it was impossible to cross the 
desert, and that if I attempted to get away at the pre- 
sent moment, the people would follow and massacre 
my servants and myself on the road. I waited, there- 
fore, a day or two to see what would turn up, nothing 
doubting that rather than keep the Christian in their 
town, these zealous Moslemin would in a day or two 
come to terms. In fact, on the third day of my im- 
prisonment, three of the sheikhs came and offered me 
camels to go away with, but just before this the Mufti 
had sent privately to warn me, that if I accepted the 



248 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XVII. 

offer, my caravan would be waylaid a few hours out of 
the oasis. 

I now wrote to Her Majesty's Consul-General in 
Cairo, acquainting him with the position I was in, 
and requesting assistance, and Yusuf dispatched my 
letter by one of his slaves, who was familiar with the 
country he had to traverse. I had previously endea- 
voured to persuade a Bedawy to be my messenger, 
but after bargaining for an exorbitant remuneration, 
he lost courage and refused to take it. When, how- 
ever, on the second day afterwards, he missed the 
slave, he did not doubt I had sent him to Cairo ; and 
now, regretting the money he might have gained, he 
revenged himself by telling the people that I had sent 
to bring soldiers. On this the Mejlis assembled to 
deliberate ; their first proceeding was to come to Yusuf, 
to ask if it were true that I had written to his High- 
ness. He answered that he could tell them nothing 
about it, and that they had better apply to me. The 
three who had rescued the baggage, now, therefore, 
presented themselves, and at Yusuf 's request I ad- 
mitted them. In answer to their questions I said that 
I was no way bound to satisfy their curiosity, but that 
being a good-natured fellow, and my messenger by 
this time a long way on his road, I consented to gra- 
tify them. I had, indeed, written to tell how I had 



Chap. XVII. INCIDENTS WHILE IMPEISONED. 



249 



been attacked, and how I was imprisoned by them in 
Sheikh Yusuf's house, and that I had added, I should 
now stay there till an answer was sent to me. 

For the first fortnight that I was shut up in the 
cabin Yusuf had given me, though unable to stir out, 
I found the time passed quickly enough, as, besides 
that Yusuf and the people of his clan came often to 
see me (so that my house was generally full), there 
was every day something exciting, which afforded 
amusement. One evening, for instance, some shots 
were fired into my house, probably by way of keeping 
me on the qui vive rather than with any murderous 
intention ; another day, the whole of the Lifayah as- 
sembled in arms, at the small village called the Man- 
shieh, determined at night to march upon my house, 
and so end the matter. They were resolved to get rid 
of the Christian ; and to encourage themselves in their 
warlike resolutions, many of them bound themselves 
" by the divorce," to exterminate him, and the big 
war- drum was put out into the sun to stretch the skin, 
and give it a terror-inspiring tone. Next, a deputa- 
tion of the sheikhs came to me to offer peace and 
friendship, if I would only go away and tell the Pacha 
that I had nothing to complain of. I explained to 
them with infinite suavity, that this was out of the 
question. How could I say that I had nothing to 
complain of ? beside this, my letter must be already 

M 3 



250 WANDERINGS IX NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XTII. 

in Cairo, and having said in it that I should wait for 
an answer. I could not, of course, go away till it came. 
I also reminded them of their own frequent protesta- 
tions, that they had no authority over the people, and 
asked what security they could offer me that I should 
not be attacked, as once intended, on the journey. 
Negotiation proving ineffectual, they tried a new dodge. 
Yusuf was cited before the Mejlis to answer for har- 
bouring a Christian, and men were posted in the nar- 
row dark streets of the town to kill him as he went, 
but the Mufti again sent him warning of the plot, 
which Yusuf the more readily gave credence to, as his 
father had been killed in this way. 

Then again a fresh attack with arms was planned 
for the evening, and this seemed so menacinsr that 
Yusuf put garrisons into the largest houses in my 
neighbourhood, and came himself, with ten men, to 
aid in defending mine. I was luckily well provided 
with arms, and disposed evei^thing to make what 
would probably have been a successful resistance. At 
the advice of one of the principal men of the place, 
and to prevent the chance of firing on our own friends 
m the dark, the garrison was withdrawn from the sur- 
rounding houses ; their presence there, in case of a 
melee, would, T confess, have been more alarming to 
me than the attack from below, and being marched to 
the foot of the Garah, with much screaming but for- 



Chap. XVII. DEFENSIVE PEEPAEATIONS. 251 

tunately no bloodshed, they repulsed the Lifayah, who 
turned backwards when they found preparations made 
to receive them. After this night there was a regular 
patrol established in this part of the town. 

One evening, just before sunset, when seated with 
Yusuf on the roof of my dwelling, four men, with 
guns, were seen on the rock which overhangs the 
house. They were observed just as they were creep- 
ing round a corner, by a servant who was bringing a 
chibouque, our backs being turned to them ; a cry was 
immediately raised, people were dispatched to arrest 
them, and two were secured, the others escaping. 
Yusuf had no power to do anything with them, he 
being, in fact, as much a prisoner as myself; and 
was fain to accept their explanation, that they had 
come to shoot crows, in order to obtain their galls, 
with which to anoint the eyes of some one who had 
an ophthalmia. 

Other trivial annoyances, many of them so childish 
as to be merely amusing, were with great ingenuity 
resorted to. The little children used to assemble 
round my house, calling out, " Oh, Consul, there is 
no God but God ! " and singing songs which I suspect 
were not altogether complimentary. Nosrani and 
Consul were the names I was known by among the 
people when they spoke of me to one another. I had 
declined the latter title, to which I had no pretension ; 



252 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XVII, 



and would not be called Hawadjah, which is the polite 
name generally given to Franks in Egypt, even by 
the Government, in its correspondence with the fo- 
reign Consuls, and which means a small trader or 
pedlar; Yusuf, therefore, gave me the title of El 
Senhor, which I have retained to this day. The 
people were forbidden to sell me anything, and it was 
with no small difficulty that Yusuf procured for me 
the very meagre fare with which I was fain to be satis- 
fied ; a couple of tame fowls, some rice or lentils, 
butter and dates, were the provision for four persons ; 
and this scanty supply cost, on an average, more than 
a guinea a- day. One of the wealthier people sold me 
a goose one day, for which he was cited before the 
Mejlis, and beaten, though his brother was one of the 
sheikhs. 

Time wore on, and the twentieth day, on which I 
expected an answer to my letter would arrive, had 
come and gone. Some Arabs from the west brought 
a report that the Viceroy had been murdered, and 
some of the sheikhs did not fail to come to me the 
next day to see how I took the news. Of course, I 
made light of it, telling them that if Abbas were dead, 
Said would be Viceroy, and that the English Govern- 
ment, which does not die, would take as good care of 
me under the one as under the other. When, how- 
ever, a second report to the same effect arrived, a few 



Chap. XVII. A SOUTH WIND BLOWS GOOD LUCK. 253 



days afterwards, I acknowledge that I felt less un- 
concern than I cared to show, for such an event, if 
true, would have probably prolonged my detention, if 
it did not endanger my life and that of my protector 
Yusuf, and my servants. 

The time which I had calculated would bring an 
answer to my letters (for I had found means to send a 
second letter on the chance of the first having mis- 
carried) had long past ; and I had no easy task to 
keep Yusuf and his friends in good spirits. They 
were becoming very uneasy, for they had committed 
themselves both to the Egyptian government and the 
Sewiyah ; the first would render them responsible for 
my safety, the second would never forgive the pro- 
tection afforded to the Christian. At length, one day, 
a hot south wind arose, and blew with great violence 
during that and the three following days ; hereon a 
hundred and forty of the men, who felt themselves 
most guilty, left Siwah for the Arab encampments on 
the Okbah ; for now they believed, most of them for 
the first time, that something would come of my com- 
plaint, as a hot south wind in Siwah, such as this, is 
regarded by them as the unfailing signal of some 
coming calamity. One is almost tempted to think 
they must be a remnant of the Psylli, who had 
escaped the general destruction of their nation, and 
still dread their old enemy. Yusuf 's adjurations and 



254 WANDERINGS IN NOKTH AFRICA. Chap. XVII. 

threats had had no effect in persuading them that 
they would rue their inhospitable conduct to a 
stranger, but this day of hot wind convinced them 
that what he said was true. 

From this time forward there were constant appli- 
cations from the sheikhs and principal people of the 
Lifayah, to see the Nosrani ; and those whom I ad- 
mitted, came to protest that they had taken no part 
in anything that had befallen me, charitably throwing 
the blame on the others. Each, in fact, was the only 
innocent man in the place ; and all felt the tenderest 
affection for my person. Such evidences of esteem 
and consideration were, of course, most gratifying to 
my feelings, and made me the more regret that they 
had put it out of my power to be serviceable to them ; 
having applied to the English. Consul- General, and 
he, of course, to the Viceroy, any decision in the 
matter now depended, not on me, but on them. 

Such scenes were not, however, my only amuse- 
ments. During the day I picked up some scraps of 
information about the manners and superstitions of 
the country from my various visitors. From a Fezyan 
Fikhi I got some quaint lessons in theological lore ; 
and from a Moghrabi treasure- seeker I heard a good 
deal of the excavations which he had at different times 
made, not, however, to seek the antiquities which 
he seems to have found, but the hidden wealth, 



Chap. XVII. MANNERS, ETC., OF THE PEOPLE. 255 

which, judging from his appearance, I should say had 
escaped him. Every evening after dinner, Sheikh Yusuf 
and a dozen of his friends used to come, and sit with 
me for two or three hours. Their favourite conver- 
sation turned upon the wickedness of the Lifayah, 
whom they seemed to regard as the greatest monsters 
in the world; my guests would tell how they had 
beaten their last governor, and killed Yusuf 's father, 
and how they fired upon travellers. Then they would 
expatiate with monkey -like chuckling on the exaspe- 
ration which their conduct would produce in the 
Pacha ; what he would do to this one, what to that — 
all subjects which my friends wore threadbare, with- 
out ever seeming to tire of them. Sometimes the 
entertainment was varied by stories which Yusuf told 
with great native humour ; or we killed time and tried 
to satisfy our impatience by practising the method of 
divination called Derb-er-raml. 

The stories I will spare the reader, who has had 
enough of Arab tales in every shape, though I am 
sadly tempted to tell how the two little donkeys were 
welded into a. big one, or how the ass stuck in the 
mud, and the hysena ate him, notwithstanding his 
long horns. 

The inhabitants of Siwah speak a dialect of the 
Berbery, and only a very few of them know any word 



256 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XVII. 

of Arabic; they are unquestionably an Aboriginal 
people, probably the descendants of one of the No- 
mad tribes, who inhabited the interior of Libya, and 
who may have succeeded to the possession of the 
Oasis of Ammon, after the extinction of the Eoman 
power in this country. The entire population con- 
sists of the inhabitants of Siwah Proper, which is 
divided into east and west, and those of Agharmy, a 
small town about two miles to the east, in all little 
more than four thousand souls. The inhabitants of 
the eastern part of the town, my enemies, are called 
Sharkyin, or Lifayah, and these are again subdivided 
into three clans. The Westerns or Gharbyin are, in 
the same way, composed of three clans, and each clan 
has two sheikhs ; these, with the Mufti and Cadi, form 
the Mejlis, presided over until his deposition by Yusuf 
as Sheikh-el-Beled. Their own account of their ori- 
gin is, that, excepting three families of the old race, 
whose genealogy goes back to the remotest times, the 
whole of them are Arabs, Moghrabin, or Fellahs; 
none of whom have been settled here for more than 
four generations. Judging from their features, I 
should think that there must be a much greater mix- 
ture of the blood of an older race ; nor is it likely, if 
Arabic had been the original language of the im- 
mense majority, that it should be now only known to 



Chap. XVII. THE IE APPEAEANCE AND DEESS. 257 

so few persons, after this short lapse of time. Of the 
women there is hardly one who understands anything 
but the Siwy Berbery. 

They are a singularly ugly race, with dark-brown 
complexion, and a truly bestial expression, but with 
no trace of the negro type, while they are still fur- 
ther removed from the Arab and Copt. Their fierce 
disposition makes them dreaded by the Arabs, who 
come to Siwah to buy dates, and who are subjected 
during their stay there to a most rigorous police. 
Those of the women whom I saw through my tele- 
scope on the roofs of the houses, were not more 
agreeable in appearance than the men; and even 
childhood is here devoid of the engaging graces of 
its age. 

The dress of the men is a long shirt with drawers ; 
a skull-cap of cotton, to which a milaya, such as is 
worn by the Egyptian women, is added. The head- 
dress of the women is curious. The front hair is 
plaited into twelve small braids, which hang straight 
over the forehead; on each side is a similar short 
bunch, looking like nothing but the cords of a mop, 
and round the head are wound two long plaits brought 
from behind. Over this the milaya is thrown, and a 
dark blue shirt completes the costume. They are 
kept very strictly confined to the house, which the 
wealthier never leave, and no respectable woman goes 



258 



WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XVII, 



out excepting at night. These precautions of the 
Siwy are said to be as efficacious as those of the Djin, 
who kept his lady-love in a box ; and the moral cha- 
racter of the Siwah fair is such, that had he reigned 
here, Pheron would probably never have recovered his 
eye-sight. 

The men are notoriously bad, at the same time that 
they are among the most fanatical Moslemin in Africa. 
In fact, I had good reason to believe correct what was 
said to me of them : — " Every vice and every indul- 
gence is lawful (Hellal) to the Siwy. Nothing is for- 
bidden to them (Haram), but the presence of a Chris- 
tian." They are divided into two schools, the follow- 
ers of the SunCisy, of whom I shall have to speak 
later, and the Dirkawy, the ranters of Islam, who de- 
rive their origin from a celebrated sheikh of Masrata, 
who died a hundred years ago. Between the two 
orders the same affection seems to exist as fable attri- 
butes to the Jesuits and Dominicans in Christendom. 

The Siwy are superstitious, though, perhaps, not 
more so than the ignorant masses in all countries; 
nearly all the men have amulets sewed to their caps, 
or hung round their necks ; every house is defended 
from the evil eye by an earthen pot well blackened in 
the fire, which is built mouth downwards over the 
doorway, or at one corner ; and in addition to this 
charm, it is not uncommon to see the leg bones of an 



Chap. XVII. AN INDUSTRIOUS RACE. 259 

ass projecting from some part of the building: this 
struck me particularly, as this use of it was once a 
superstitious practice in England. This and similar 
practices were forbidden by the Council of London, 
held about the year 1075. 

After saying so much in dispraise of the Siwy, I 
must add that, compared with the people of Jalo and 
Angila, they are an industrious race, paying great 
attention to the cultivation of their palms and olive- 
trees, which they manure and tend with infinite care. 
A great part of the soil is capable of producing grain, 
and they possess extensive corn-fields; these being 
cultivated entirely with the spade, demand much la- 
bour; the consequence of which is, that the small 
population is unable to bring even the near-lying 
grounds completely under crop. From this cause 
several fertile oases dependent on Siwah are now 
abandoned. Interspersed among their palm-groves 
they have abundance of vines, apricots, and pome- 
granates, whose sweet though small fruit they pre- 
serve all the winter. To manure their trees they 
employ a thorny plant, which grows in great quanti- 
ties in Maragah, called 'agul. This they collect and 
bind into large bundles, three of which form a donkey 
load; then, digging pits round the trees, they bury 
these bundles in them, after which they water them 



260 WANDERINGS IN NOETH AFRICA, Chap. XVII. 



regularly once in six days. All caravans coming to 
Siwah are obliged to put up in a particular place, and 
the manure thus collected, along with the produce of 
the 'agul grounds, is sold every year by auction for 
the benefit of the community. 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 



Arab Mesmerism. — Divination. — Sheikh Semisi. — Morocco Mira- 
cles. — A Treasure-seeker's Tales. — Yusuf 's Ingenuity. — Further 
exemplified. — My Captivity ended. — The Tables turned. 

One of my first visitors was the Moghrabi from Tan- 
giers, already mentioned, called El Gibely, who has 
been settled here for many years. He was a perfect 
specimen of this class of adventurers; pretending to 
have a familiar spirit, a djin who waits upon him, and 
tells him the secrets of futurity. He wrote charms to 
discover treasures, and to cure all manner of diseases, 
and I almost think had ended by believing in them 
himself. The day after I was shut up in Yusuf's 
house he took an opportunity of vaunting to me highly 
the virtues of his amulets, particularly of one which 
renders its possessor ball-proof. He fancied, probably, 
that this was the moment to effect a profitable sale, 
and I asked questions, and listened to him with a 
grave attention which must have given him great 



262 WANDE KINGS IN NOETH AEKICA. Chap. XVIII. 



hopes. In this he overrated my credulity; hut I 
repaid his communicativeness in kind, by describing 
to him the wonders of the electric telegraph, which I 
thought would astonish him ; hut in this I was in 
turn disappointed, as he listened to my accounts of 
instantaneous messages sent over land and sea, without 
expressing a doubt, or even asking how such wonders 
were performed. In fact, he already knew all about it 
— " It was the djin." 

I one day sent for him to perform the often-talked- 
of miracle, or trick of the ink-spot in a child's hand. 
A young negro, about nine years old, was introduced, 
and the inscription on his forehead was written with 
all due ceremony, the seal was drawn in his hand, the 
coriander seed was burned under his nose, until the 
poor child's eyes ran with tears, and the fear he was in 
covered his forehead with big drops of sweat. After 
some time he saw a person in the ink-spot ; he was 
then told to order him to bring another, whom he was 
not long in fancying he saw ; but he then became 
quite wild, and neither the muttered surah, nor the 
repeated orders of the Moghrabi had any further 
effect. The child could see nothing more. I re- 
garded the experiment with the most incredulous cau- 
tion; and, though it certainly failed, I was not con- 
vinced that so-called animal magnetism would not 



Chap. XYIII. ARAB MESMEBISM. 



263 



give an explanation of the phenomena, such as trust- 
worthy Arabs have assured me they had themselves 
seen. Leo Africanus speaks of these conjurors with 
the utmost contempt; and, I believe, all later Euro- 
peans who have written on the subject regard the pro- 
ceeding as a gross trick ; but in these countries it is 
universally believed, even by men who laugh at the 
usual apparatus of charms and amulets. One of my 
friends brought me a manuscript, which he had found 
among the effects of a moghrabi who died here many 
years ago, in which the whole process is explained ; it 
was essentially the same as that used by El Gibely, 
who, probably to enhance the mystery of the proceed- 
ing in my eyes, added, besides the two lines which are 
written on the forehead, a sort of star over the nose, 
and inscriptions on each eyebrow.* 

* HOW TO MAKE THE DjIN DESCEND. 

Write in the right palm of a hoy or girl, "below the age of 
puberty, the seal which is here given, and fumigate with coriander 
seed, which among the Djin are counted apples, and conjure them 
with the Surah "and the Sun" to the end, until they come down. 
Then ask them what you desire to know, and they will answer you 
with the permission of God (be he exalted !) ; and this is what you 
write on the forehead of the child : — 

LL/lkc ciAlc \jJUL& 

And then you write the seal, and in the midst of it make a spot of 
ink ; and when you wish to dismiss the kings, conjure them with 



264 



WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XYIIL 



Having spoken at such length of the art of making 
<e the Djin descend into a child's hand/' I may complete 
my confession of the "black arts which I learned here, 
by describing the process of divination called " Derb 
er rami," or " Derb el fill," according to the medium 
used, whether it is sand or beans ; the latter (with the 
beans) is the simplest, but both are in principle the 
same. Seven beans are held in the palm of the left 
hand, which is struck with a smart blow with the right 
half-closed fist, so that some of the beans jump into 

the verse of the throne, and they will depart hy permission of 
God. This is the seal as you see it here, and there is no power 
and no strength hut in God. 




Chap. XVIII. DIVINATION. 265 

the right hand — if an odd number, one is marked ; if 
even, two. The beans are replaced in the left hand, 
which is again struck with the right, and the result 
marked below the first. This being repeated four 
times gives the first figure, and the operation is per- 
formed until there are obtained four figures, which are 
placed side by side in a square ; these are then read 
vertically and perpendicularly, and also from corner to 
corner, thus giving in all ten figures. As each may 
contain four odd or four even numbers, they are 
capable of sixteen permutations, each of which has a 
separate signification, and a proper house or part of 
the square in which it should appear. The Derb er- 
rand is only distinguished from this by being more 
complicated, fresh combinations being obtained by the 
addition of every pair of figures. There is a large 
work on this subject by El-Zenaty, and another called 
Omdat-et-Taleb. 

One day the Gibely came to me in all his Friday 
gaiety of attire, " perfumed like a milliner," his eyes 
broadly painted with kohl. We had a long discussion 
on the earth and its form, and the great sea which 
surrounds it, and jebel kaf which bounds it, and the 
seven climates, and the seven heavens, for whose ex- 
istence he quoted the words of Him whose name be 
exalted! in the Koran. I demurred to some of his 
theories, and treated jebel kaf and the seven climates 

N 



266 WANDERINGS IN NORTH' AFRICA. Chap. XYTIL 

as at least old-fashioned — with the heavens, may they 
never be fewer ! I did not interfere ; but even with the 
aid of such maps as I had at hand, I could not, of 
course, hope to make my very modern notion of the 
world's form perfectly intelligible. From this we 
passed, by an easy transition (arising, I think, from 
his assertion that Mecca is the centre of the world), to 
the subject of natural and supernatural knowledge, 
and thence to miracles. Eeason being as much op- 
posed to the mysteries of faith as to a belief in occur- 
rences out of the usual course of nature, it is difficult 
to prescribe a term to the one without seeming to 
doubt the other; and I therefore, without entering 
into explanations, was content to say, "It seems 
strange, but God only knows." He himself pretended 
to be able to travel from here to Benghazi and Derna, 
in summer, through the parched desert, alone, without 
water or wallet, and to want for nothing — an assertion 
he has often made to me, as of a thing notorious to 
all in Siwah, ascribing the gift at one time to his 
attendant djin, at another to the Sheikh Senusi. To- 
day, I suppose because it was Friday, the living saint 
had the credit of the prodigy. The Senusi, of whom 
I have had so often occasion to speak, is the founder 
of the largest religious brotherhood at present existing 
in Africa, its ramifications extending from Morocco to 
the Hedjay. He is a native of Mostaghanem, was 



Chap. XYIH. SHEIKH SENUSL 267 

educated in Fez, and now resides in Mecca, where lie 
has beside his house a large zavia. He is about sixty- 
five years old, and from the immense influence which 
he has acquired it may fairly be supposed that he is a 
man of no ordinary talents. He is a sherif of good 
family, and the donations of pious pilgrims have ren- 
dered his zavias (convents) very wealthy. The mem- 
bers of these convents, after having completed their 
studies, are allowed to marry, and without practising 
any great austerities they are very strict Moslemin. 
In imitation of the Prophet they say fifty rika'"ats in 
the twenty-four hours, five of which are said at mid- 
night ; they fast, in addition to Eamazan, on certain 
days in the months of Sha'aban, Hedjib, and Zil 
Hidjih, and abstain from smoking and drinking coffee, 
tea being their usual beverage. They seem less fana- 
tical than the general mass of Arabs ; although their 
founder is a native of Algiers, he professes, though 
perhaps only from policy, a particular esteem for the 
English, and I believe I had, very unworthily, the 
benefit of this partiality. From one of the disciples 
of the sheikh I learned a point in our national history 
which was new to me. When the Prophet died, the 
English were on the point of becoming true believers, 
but, learning his death, they determined to remain as 
they were ; they made, however, a treaty with Abou 
Behr, by which it was agreed, that though they 

N 2 



268 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XYIII. 

continued Christians, there should be perpetual amity 
between them and the Caliph. 

The Senusi is represented to me as all that an Arab 
saint should be — exact in the observances of religion, 
gay, and a capital shot ; he rides a horse of the purest 
breed and of great value, dresses magnificently, paints 
his eyes with kohl and his beard with henna. He is 
very hospitable, and if the Gibely may be believed, 
has a granary which the large daily drafts he makes 
on it never empty ; receiving nothing from any one, 
he has always money; and a hundred, or even two 
hundred, persons eat from his dish of cuscusu, which 
miraculously suffices for them all. The Senusi seems 
a man respectable for his talents and probity, though 
from the above history of him it may be supposed that 
he takes advantage of the veneration of his disciples to 
impose on their credulity. In the eyes of my Mogh- 
rabi friend, however, he is not the only living thau- 
maturge in Islam; for there are, he asserts, many 
individuals in Morocco, some of whom he knows 
personally, who pray every day at Mecca, and he told 
of one who, no saint himself, owed this favour to the 
sheikh he served. The event happened in Tunis. 
The servant wished to go on the pilgrimage, but from 
day to day his master dissuaded him, saying, " There 
is time, wait yet a little." Thus passed the months; 
the festival was approaching, and still the sheikh an- 



Chap, XVIII. MOEOCCO MIEACLES. 269 

swered, " You shall make this year's pilgrimage, but 
there is still time." At length the ninth of Til Hidj 
came, the very day of the sermon on Mount Arafat, 
when, about mid- day, the sheikh called him, and said, 
" Shut your eyes," and " now open them." He obeyed, 
and found himself with a multitude of people at Mount 
Arafat. He performed with them the ceremonies of 
the pilgrimage, joining in the processional prayers, 
and after this spoke to many of his Tunisian acquaint- 
ance. He said he should return before them, and 
offered to carry letters, many of which, sealed with 
their seals, and referring to their children and family 
affairs, were given to him. His master, who was with 
him all this time, then said, " Shut your eyes," and in 
an instant he found himself again in Tunis, with his 
letters. He delivered them the next day; but, not- 
withstanding the evidence of the seals and the contents, 
the people, seeing the date, said, " He is an impostor." 
" Wait," was the answer, "till the return of the Hadj." 
Meantime, at Arafat, his countrymen looked for him, 
and not seeing him, said among themselves, " He is 
gone back before us to Mecca;" but when after months 
they returned home, and each recognising his own 
letter asserted that he had sent it from. Arafat, and had 
seen the bearer there, the people were convinced of the 
miracle. 



270 WANDERINGS IN NOETH AFEICA. Chap. XVIII- 

Miracles performed by mad saints are not less firmly 
believed by my friend. There is such an one at Da- 
manhur, and I bad myself tbe pleasure of seeing bim 
when there, who, clothed in the costume of Sultan 
Adam when he left the hands of his Creator, is build- 
ing a mosque at Tunis. He goes every day to the 
Nile, and throws stones into it, which are at the same 
moment conveyed to Tunis, and arrange themselves in 
proper architectural design. He told of another at 
Tripoli, whose aid the crew of a ship at sea invoked in 
a storm, promising him a recompense [if saved. He 
was at that moment in the bazaar ; a man riding on a 
donkey was passing him, when he jumped up, as if 
possessed, from the stall he was sitting on, knocked 
the man from his seat, and . I should have con- 
tinued the story in Arabic (my oracular tongue fur- 
nishing no terms in which to relate it), but I refrain, 
as the learned who could decipher the Arabic are pro- 
bably sufficiently good Oriental scholars to fill up the 
blank in my narration. At this moment, said the 
truthful historian, he appeared to the mariners, and 
when, two days afterwards, the ship entered the port, 
the saint presented himself to claim his recompense. 
But the devil was no longer sick, and the sheikh's sal- 
vage dues were now denied him. All the people, 
however, testified that the scene with the donkey in 



Chap. XVIII. A TEEASUEE-SEEKEE'S TALES. 



271 



the market took place at the hour when his aid was 
invoked, and, thus convicted, the promised reward was 
given. 

I might fill a volume with such strange tales, as the 
treasure-seeker's visits are frequent; he had a well- 
supplied "budget, and he freely communicated its con- 
tents, in the hope of drawing me out in turn. He 
certainly thought I had private information about the 
immense treasures which he believed buried here ; and 
whatever the subject we were discussing, he always con- 
trived to introduce in a corner of his talk, in angulo 
sui sermonis, a question relating to them, or an in- 
quiry as to the process of rendering quicksilver solid. 
This was all that he was in need of to discover the 
grand arcanum for turning the baser metals into gold 
and silver. Did he know the quicksilver secret he was 
master of all the rest, and of acquiring this he did 
not at all despair. I told him that transmutation was a 
dream long exploded among the learned ; but I offered 
him the receipt how to make rubies and other precious 
stones, only premising that the cost was greater than 
the value of the newly- formed gem. 

Having presented the Gibely to my readers, as a 
good specimen of the fortune- seeking Moghrabi who 
abound in the East, it would not be fair to omit some 
account of Sheikh Yusuf — a much rarer character, 
because really an honest man ; though the stories I am 



272 WANDEEIXGS IN NOETH AFRICA. Chap. XVIII. 

going to tell of him, gathered from his own lips, may 
not seem to European readers to hear out the fair 
praise I give him. He is a very remarkable man, full 
of energy, and has made the best use of the education 
which an early initiation in affairs gives. He knows 
the letters of the alphabet, and this is probably the 
whole amount of his book learning ; but his memory 
is well stored with texts of the Koran, verses of the 
poets, and those stories which are so pre-eminently an 
Oriental accomplishment, and which he related with a 
vivacity remarkable in this country of loutish stupidity. 
His father was Sheikh el Beled before him, and at 
thirteen he was also sheikh, giving his opinion freely, 
even against his father's views. When he was less 
than seventeen his father was murdered in open day, 
by some of the discontented Siwy, one of his own 
servants heading the conspiracy. Yusuf, thereupon, 
proceeded straight to Cairo, and was by Mohammed 
Ali appointed Sheikh el Beled in his room. The Pacha 
had given Siwah and the Little Oasis, with their 
revenues, as a backshish to one Hassan Bey, who had 
reduced them to his obedience ; and the Sheikh told 
with gusto some stories of that time, which are too 
characteristic to be omitted here. 

When his father went to the Proprietor- Governor, 
he used to take Yusuf with him, to make him ac- 
quainted with affairs ; but only as a listener. One 



Chap. XVIII. 



YUSUFS INGENUITY. 



273 



day in the date season, a large number of Arabs, with 
their camels, had come from the Okbar, or, as it is 
called here, the Gazelle-land, to purchase dates. Has- 
san Bey coveted his neighbours camels, but was per- 
plexed how to become master of them without injury 
to his purse, or incurring Mohammed Ali's anger. He 
consulted Sheikh Ah, who would give no advice, but 
only shook his head, and said, " Tyranny, tyranny." 
" I'll tell you what you should do," cried Yusuf, 
eagerly. " What shall I do, my child ?" " You shall 
buy them for fifteen dollars a-piece, and lose nothing 
by the transaction." He then explained his plan, 
which delighted the Bey; but his father only shook 
his head the more, and oftener repeated, "Tyranny." 
" You, Sheikh Ah," said the Bey, " are a graybeard, 
and do not understand government. Sheikh Yusuf is 
young and brave, and I will follow his advice." The 
uext day the Arabs were told that the Bey wanted to 
buy some of their camels, and that they must bring 
them to the castle in the afternoon. Accordingly, be- 
fore evening, more than three hundred of the best 
camels were collected in the court; and the Bey 
having ordered several sheep to be killed, invited the 
owners of the camels to sup with him. After supper, 
the bargain was struck for fifteen dollars a-piece, the 
Mufti and Cadi being called to witness the agreement, 
which was drawn out in writing. All parties affixed 

n 3 



274 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XVTEI. 

their seals, and the money was paid down at once. 
After this, the Mufti and Cadi rose to leave, and all 
were going to retire from the castle, when the Bey said 
to the Arabs, " You are my guests ; you must stay 
here all night, and we will breakfast together in the 
morning." The bait was tempting to men who love 
animal food at the cost of their friends; and the foolish 
Arabs remained after the others had withdrawn. The 
next morning some more sheep were sacrificed to the 
genius of hospitality ; the Arabs ate with their usual 
appetite, and took their departure ; but, as they passed 
out of the gates, each was forced to restore the money 
he had received for his camels. Thus Hassan Bey 
purchased camels without their costing him anything. 

On another occasion, Yusuf helped him to make a 
not less profitable speculation in oxen and cows. 
There were many defaulters to the miri ; and his 
father and the Bey were in consultation as to the 
way to get from them their debt, or its equivalent. 
There were many cattle in Siwah at that time, and 
Sheikh Ali proposed to take them in payment, at ten 
dollars a-head, which was rather less than their value ; 
but Yusuf said, "No; take them at forty dollars 
a-head, and follow my plan." " What is your plan ? " 
"When the dates are gathered, return their oxen to 
the owners, making them buy them back at the 
original price, and take from them the amount of miri 



Chap. XVIII. FURTHER EXEMPLIFIED. 



275 



that they owe in money." At so large a price, every- 
body was anxious to give his cows instead of the miri 
and the Governor — good-natured soul! — gave them 
credit for forty dollars on each one that was offered ; 
but sent the cattle back to their owners, saying he 
would take them when wanted. In October, there was 
a plentiful date harvest, and the Bey was chuckling 
over his intended finesse, when it occurred to him that 
many of the cattle had died during the heats of sum- 
mer. He sent for Yusuf, to see if he could help him 
out of this dilemma. " To those whose cows are 
alive, return them at the original price ; and as for the 
others, it is but just they should refund you the forty 
dollars which their oxen cost, as they have never 
served you, but remained and died in their keeping." 
Thus, by a truly Turkish calculation, the Bey bought 
cows without paying for them, and sold them for ready 
money to their original owners, who were then made 
to pay their arrears of taxes, as if there had been no 
question of cattle ; and who do not, perhaps, at this 
hour understand how so fair a transaction resulted to 
themselves in a clear loss of forty dollars on each of 
their beeves. 

His own father was once the object of Yusuf 's prac- 
tical pleasantries. The town had rebelled, and the 
ringleaders of the revolt were imprisoned in the castle. 
Sheikh Ali received money from two of the worst, on 



276 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XVIII. 

the promise of obtaining their liberty, and in the 
afternoon went to the Bey to intercede for them ; and 
being a favourite with the Governor, he easily pro- 
cured an assurance that they should be liberated next 
morning. Yusuf learned what had passed ; so, after 
supper, he set off alone for the castle, and asked ad- 
mittance to the Bey. " What brings you at this hour, 
my son?" said he, after the first salutation. "My 
father came here to-day to ask for the liberty of such 
and such a one. Do you wish to know the exact 
truth?" "Certainly I do; speak." "Well, then, 
know that, in truth, they are the worst men in Siwah ; 
but my father has taken a bribe to procure their par- 
don." At this the Bey was very angry ; and, calling 
to the guard, he had the prisoners brought out and be- 
headed on the spot. Yusuf returned home ; and, next 
morning, when he came to release them, his father 
found their headless bodies lying in the court. " Of 
course," said I, " your father returned the money ? " 
" To whom ? " said Yusuf. " The men were dead ; 
and there was no one could say to my father, ' You 
took a bribe — return the money ! ' " 

After telling these stories of my sheikh, it may seem 
incredible when I add that, though feared as a most 
severe man, he was acknowledged by all the Siwy 
never to have taken a bribe, or committed an act of 
oppression on his own account. " If you do not do 



Chap. XVIII. MY CAPTIVITY ENDED. 277 

such things for yourself," I said, " how can you com- 
mit them for others ?" He answered that the Osmanli 
only value a man as he serves them as an instrument 
of extortion. 

My long detention in Siwah must, by this time, 
have become as wearisome to my reader as it was to 
myself ; let me hasten, then, to open my prison-doors, 
and pursue my journey to its end. 

On the 14th of March, exactly six weeks from my 
arrival, about sunset, there came running to my house 
some of my Siwy friends, crying " Backshish for good 
news ! " Two Arabs were to be seen in the distance, 
who, soon after, arrived, and announced themselves 
as two sheikhs, and very important and big-mouthed 
personages they were. They were the avant- couriers 
of the detachment of irregular cavalry (Bashi-buzuks), 
whom the Viceroy of Egypt had sent to my assist- 
ance. One would have thought them the kings of 
the world, from the airs they gave themselves, and the 
monstrous lies they told ; and had I been less accus- 
tomed to the assumption of consequence in which 
Arabs, and, indeed, all Easterns, indulge, until they 
have received a good lesson, I should have been really 
frightened at having to entertain such important gen- 
tlemen. They came to demand rations for the men 
and horses, which were to be furnished by the town ; 



278 



WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XVIII. 



and, as a matter of course, ordered twice as much as 
was really required ; and, equally as a matter of course, 
hardly got, I "believe, half of what they demanded. 
This contribution was, at my request, levied on the 
hostile part of the town, and my friends escaped un- 
molested. It was not until the 16th, in the moming, 
that my deliverers arrived, having come from Hhosh 
ebn Issa, near Damanhur, in nineteen days. They 
were commanded by a Turcoman, one Hassan Aga, the 
wahil, or major of the regiment, an easy-natured soul, 
somewhat sulky withal, as assuming as all Turks are, 
but only requiring to be held firmly in hand, and an 
assiduous sayer of his prayers. 

Such a commander never was sent in charge of 
troops ; he had with him twelve or fourteen officers 
(Buluk-Bashi is then title), and every one of them 
seemed to think he had a voice in the command. All 
matters, of whatever nature they might be, were dis- 
cussed in public, the very soldiers sometimes inter- 
fering with advice. Among banditti, such a republican 
constitution may sometimes exist ; but that the most 
irregular troops in the world could be kept together 
with such a system seemed impossible. The first 
day of their arrival, after having received the Com- 
mandant's visit, I went to the castle in which the 
troops were lodged, aod made a formal request that he 



Chap. XYIII. THE TABLES TUENED. 279 

would seize the Sheikhs of the Lifayah, with the Cadi, 
and the Imam of one of the mosques, and carry them 
with him to Cairo, to answer before the Viceroy. He 
said he could not do so, having no orders, except to 
bring me away ; to which I rejoined, that no doubt 
he was quite right ; and that I had only to beg a 
written acknowledgment that I had required him to 
take them with him, but that he, having no orders, was 
unable to comply with my request. This he absolutely 
refused, even Turks being afraid of pen and ink ; but, 
after five hours' talk between him and his officers, who 
were of various minds, on the one part; and Yusuf and 
myself on the other, he shut them up provisionally, 
excepting the Mufti, who had accompanied the Sheikhs, 
and whom I offered to bail. After this, on my giving 
him a written demand for their arrest, with an order 
from Yusuf, as Sheikh el Belid, he the next morning 
determined to carry them to Cairo, and they were 
consigned to safe-keeping, with orders to prepare for 
their journey. 

Another day had been lost in this way ; and it was 
only on Friday, the 18th, that, accompanied by a sol- 
dier and three of Sheikh Yusuf's people, I started 
early to see the ruins of Omm Beida, and any other 
antiquities which might be found in the oasis. There 
was, of course, no longer any opposition on the part 



280 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Cliap. XVIII. 

of the Siwy, "but the Commandant was very anxious 
to be off, and only with difficulty agreed to give me 
till Sunday evening — far too short a time to see the 
many ruins which are met with in the Hattyehs, 
beyond the immediate territory of Siwah. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



Antiquities of Agharmy. — Euins of a Temple. — Ancient Palace.—- 
Acropolis of the Oasis. — Tombs of the Ammonians. — Interior of 
Siwah. — Euins of Beled er-Eoum, — Many Euins around Siwah, 
— Preparations for Departure. 

Riding due east from the large town of Siwah, 
through cultivated fields well covered with green 
crops of young wheat, we came to an artesian well, 
which for perhaps thousands of years has watered 
this part of the plain. The water rises in a circular 
basin of ancient workmanship, which is admirably 
built with large dressed stones, from whence it flows by 
channels running in different directions. It is not 
very deep, and the volume of water which it discharges 
is so small, that it was emptied in two days, some few 
years ago, by persons in search of treasure. All, or 
nearly all, the walls of Siwah are of the same descrip- 
tion ; they were once more numerous than they now 
are ; but the mechanical genius of the present inhabi- 
tants is so deficient that some of the wells, even 
within the memory of man, have been allowed to get 



282 



WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XIX. 



stopped up by the falling in of their sides — one, for 
instance, on a hill to the south, to which medicinal 
virtues were ascribed. A circumstance which seemed 
to me worth recording is, that after a shock of an 
earthquake (and shocks occur here at intervals of about 
twenty years), the supply of water becomes more 
abundant ; and even old wells have been reopened by 
the convulsion. 

After passing this well, we proceeded directly to 
Agharmy {^0j^)> the modern name of the old acro- 
polis of the Oasis. I had received several visits from 
the Sheikh of Agharmy, who had shown himself 
always very friendly ; he had, in fact, on the death of 
his father, become a ward of Yusuf's. He had pro- 
mised to show me all that his town contained; but 
the jealousy of prying foreigners is such, that notwith- 
standing the presence of the soldiers, and the good 
words of the Sheikh, I should have left Siwah without 
seeing its most remarkable monument, as all my pre- 
decessors had done before me, but for the information 
given me by the Gibely. He had joined my party as 
a volunteer, with the secret intention, I believe, of 
watching my movements, in the hope that he should 
thus obtain some useful hints concerning the places 
where the hoards of the unbelievers, which he is firmly 
persuaded are concealed in all old ruins, ought to be 
dug for. 



Chap. XIX. ANTIQUITIES OF AGHARMY. 283 

Agharmy is built on the platform of a lofty rock, 
which rises abruptly from the level of the surrounding 
gardens. It is entered only by a single gateway, from 
which a very steep winding road leads up into the 
town. A guard is stationed at the door to prevent the 
admission of any individual of the Lifayah, who, 
though only living at a distance of three quarters of an 
hour, are never allowed to enter it. This precaution is 
adopted in consequence of an old feud ; the Lifayah 
having fifty or sixty years ago seized the town and 
expelled its inhabitants, who in turn, after several 
years of warfare, surprised the conquerors with the aid 
of the Gharbyin, and having recovered possession, they 
established sentinels, who still, day and night, guard 
the gate. A shed is built just without it, in which 
any of the Lifayah who wish to see inhabitants of 
Agharmy must wait, while a message is sent to fetch 
the person who is inquired for ; and from this rule not 
even the Mufti is excepted. The ascent is closed by a 
second door, through which I passed, and presently 
arrived at a deep well, which I was assured is all that 
the town has to show in the way of antiquity. It is 
circular, built of regular layers of masonry, with stairs 
descending on the north side. Diodorus mentions a 
well, lying not far from the oracle, in which the 
animals for the sacrifice were washed ; and this is un- 
doubtedly the same, as evidenced by its ancient work- 



284 



WANDE KINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XIX. 



manship, and its being the only one in the place. It 
is about fifty feet deep, and is said to be fed by the 
waters of seven springs, which issue from the base of 
the rock on which the town is built. A few large 
stones, remains of ancient building, are imbedded in 
some of the modem cabins near this. When I had 
visited these, the Sheikh assured me that there was 
nothing more to be seen in the place ; and being 
unwilling to provoke unnecessary jealousy, I was satis- 
fied to return. Proceeding ten minutes to the south, I 
reached Omm Beida, that second Ammonium, which is 
mentioned as lying not far from the town. It is still 
very much in the condition in which it was found by 
Hornemann and M. Linaut de Bellefond, the author 
of the description published under the name of M. 
Drovetti, to whom he communicated it on his return. 

All that remains of this temple are, one lintel of the 
doorway, and part of what seems to have been the 
outer chamber which led to the sanctuary. My mea- 
sures give twenty- three feet eight inches for the height 
of the remaining walls, and the inside width is fifteen 
feet nine inches. The roof is formed by blocks of 
stone, stretching from wall to wall, on each of which 
are two royal vultures, displayed side by side, holding 
swords or feathers in their claws, with bands of stars 
along the edges. The walls, of a limestone filled with 
shells, quarried in a neighbouring hill, are covered 



Chap. XTX. EUINS OF A TEMPLE. 285 

with sculptures, stuccoed and painted blue and green. 
These sculptures are in six bands, the fourth from the 
ground being filled with perpendicular lines of hiero- 
glyphics. The others are rows of figures, the gods of 
the Egyptian mythology, who occupy the three lower 
bands, diminishing in size in each successive band 
from the ground. The only seated figure is the ram- 
headed Ammon, in the third row. Above this, is a 
procession of figures bearing offerings ; and over this, 
a line of hawks, each bearing the jackal-headed stick, 
and above its head the globe, with the serpent issuing 
from it. The edifice is raised on a platform of rock ; 
some of the walls which surrounded the inner inclosure 
can still be traced ; but I could find no certain indi- 
cation of the outer wall, which was formerly visible in 
the north-east corner. At the end of the platform, im- 
mediately in a line with the existing building, is a 
subterraneous passage, which probably marks the posi- 
tion of the sanctuary, as it would serve for the oracle. 
Some large masses of alabaster are scattered about this 
part of the ruins, which have been dug up in all 
directions by those most persevering of antiquarians 
the treasure- seekers. 

Some visitor of ancient or modern times has left 
his name on the walls ; and as I thought the vanity 
of seeking such a doubtful notoriety excusable in this 
place, I copied it. In large roman letters it is written 



286 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XIX. 

— " AHIRO/' Who, or of what age, Mr. Amiro 
was. nothing indicated. A few yards to the south-by- 
south-west of Omm Beida is the celebrated fountain of 
the sun, a large pond, in several parts of which the 
water bubbles up, as if boiling. It has a saltish taste, 
and the thermometer in it marked 85°, that of the ex- 
ternal atmosphere being 78°, affording thus a very 
appreciable degree of warmth in the cold nights of the 
desert. At a short distance, eastward from the ruins, 
is a place where, not many years ago, extensive exca- 
vations were made by a Turkish Governor, as usual, in 
search of treasure ; his labour was rewarded by finding 
a bronze Hon and three statues of the same metal, 
though called, by my native informants, gold. Re- 
turning from Omm Beida to Agharmy, I found, in a 
garden to the left, ruins of a temple-like building, con- 
sisting of two chambers ; the first of which was twenty- 
two feet by seventeen, the second twelve feet by 
seventeen. They are built of very large stones, and on 
one side are fragments of fluted columns, but no capi- 
tals, nor anything which, as far as we saw, without 
digging, would indicate whether or not they belonged 
to a portico. 

I was now able to examine the town, as seen from 
the exterior, occupying its lofty table-rock. I was 
astonished, as well as pleased, to perceive in its outer 
wall, on the north side, a large piece of ancient build- 



Chap. XIX. ANCIENT PALACE OE TEMPLE. 287 

ing in perfect condition. This, as far as I am aware, 
has not been remarked by any previous traveller, and 
I eagerly inquired if there were any appearance of 
buildings connected with this within the town. I was 
assured that nothing was visible in the interior, houses 
being built against it; but information which I de- 
rived from the Gibely induced me to return to the 
town a few days later, and I now proceed to describe 
the results of my second visit. 

After passing the wall, a steep street to the right 
leads round a large group of houses, in some of which 
I remarked ancient foundations, and thence one reaches 
a very massive wall, built of large stones. A doorway 
has been broken in this leading into the court of a 
house. At my request this door was opened, and I 
found myself in the forecourt of a temple or palace, 
now divided in its breadth by a modern wall. On 
entering, to the right and left are two immense door- 
ways, now walled up, with a pure Egyptian outline 
and well-cut cornice, but unadorned with hieroglyphics. 
This court now measures sixteen feet by ten feet, but 
in its original state it must have been nearly twenty 
feet wide. After much parley, the door to the right 
was opened, and to my astonishment I found myself 
in an apartment very low and dark, but whose sides 
were covered with hieroglyphics. A modern wall 
divides it in length into two chambers, and a flooring 



288 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XIX. 

seemed to have been added to make a second story. 
Having penetrated so far, and being told there were 
no women in the house, I went up -stairs, where I 
found the sculptures continued on the wall up to a 
heavy projecting cornice, above which the wall is 
undecorated. A window in the end of the second 
chamber on this floor enabled me to see that it was 
the wall of this building which I had seen from below. 
This chamber, in its original dimensions, is about 
twenty-four feet long by fourteen broad, and twenty- 
one high, and from its cornice, which seems calculated 
to support a ceiling, I presume it consisted of two 
stories. In the upper and further room, as it at pre- 
sent exists, I found on the right a passage, made in 
the thickness of the walls, eight feet in length by two 
in width, which may have served as a place of con- 
cealment, there being no egress from it. In the lower 
room, on the left, is also a small chamber, about six 
feet by four feet, winch seems to have formed a cup- 
board or some such repository. 

Here, as at Omm Beida, I could see no appearance 
of a cartouche among the sculptures on the walls ; but 
I might have overlooked them, if any such exist, as 
only a cursory examination was reluctantly granted 
me by my guides ; the walls, moreover, were per- 
fectly blackened by smoke, and the only light we had 
was that of a flaring palm-branch. Leaving this 



Chap. XIX. THE ACEOPOLIS OF THE OASIS. 



289 



building by the door by which I had entered, and 
turning round its exterior, I found the remaining part 
of the wall of the court, with another large doorway, 
similar to those I had already seen. Proceeding south- 
wards from this I came upon indications of walls, and 
from the edge of a hill of rubbish to which I had 
advanced, I saw the wall just below my feet. I now 
turned away, leaving the western door of the old build- 
ing I had entered behind me, and after a few steps 
came to a gigantic gateway (under which the road 
passes) of less finished, though good workmanship, 
and formed of stones of Cyclopean size. Other an- 
tiquities may probably exist among the houses, but 
my time was so short, and the unwillingness of the 
people to allow me to push my investigations further 
was so great, that I was unable to make a more satis- 
factory examination of the locality. 

Agharmy is undoubtedly the ancient Acropolis of 
the Oasis, as it is described by Diodorus Siculus. He 
says that it had three walls, the first inclosing the 
palace of the kings ; the second the women's apart- 
ments (the harem) and the oracle ; the third contain- 
ing the habitation of the guards — this is, I believe, 
from Quintus Curtius ; having no means of examining 
the originals, I quote at second-hand or from memory. 
I suppose that the building still so well preserved is a 
part of the palace of the kings ; and if the three walla 

o 



290 WANDEEINGS IN NOETH AFEICA. Chap. XIX. 

are understood as having been not concentric, but the 
chords of a curve dividing the inclosure into three (the 
only reading which I think admissible), we have the 
present town nearly exhibiting the distribution of the 
old Acropolis. A wall, now principally formed of 
houses, runs round the edge of the table-rock, and the 
town can only be entered by a steep ascent on the 
south-east. At the extremity of this, where the pre- 
sent guard is lodged, I suppose was drawn the first 
wall, defended by the barracks of the Satellites. In 
the space beyond this were the palace of the women 
and the temple, near the well which still exists, sepa- 
rated by a wall (one of whose massive gateways I passed 
under) from the royal palace. 

Outside the town, in the rock on which it is built, 
and nearly beneath the remains of what I call the 
palace, is a cave eight feet by six feet, which seems to 
have been formerly the mouth of a passage cut in the 
rock, a postern from the Acropolis. The abruptness 
of the sides of the rock, the fragments scattered round 
its base, the springs which flow from beneath, the 
apricots and pomegranate trees with their lively shade 
around it, render the exterior view of Agharmy a most 
picturesque desert scene. 

I spent an afternoon on the Gara el Musaberirj, the 
hill of mummies, which lies to the north-east of the 
town. Its surface is literally, in every part, cut into 



Chap. XIX. TOMBS OF THE AMMONIANS. 



291 



caves, all of which seem to have been violated by the 
Siwy, those ransackers of tombs. In many there are 
still heaps of bones, in general bleached by the sun ; 
and in two I found fragments of well-preserved re- 
mains, wrapt in a coarse cotton cloth, with stripes of 
bright red and blue. Several of these tombs exhibit 
great care in their execution, not a few, towards the 
summit, have decorated portals, and many are plas- 
tered with a fine stucco, on which are traces of painting 
in blue or red. The Ammonians seem to have interred 
their dead without coffins, as there are no remnants of 
wood scattered among the graves ; and those who told 
me of their discoveries here and in once cultivated 
tracts to the west (though they had found many 
mummies), never seem to have met with them in 
coffins. 1 * 

To the south of Siwah is a curious hill called Gibel 
el Beyruh, formed of five cones. It contains several 
excavations, which have been used as tombs, but which 
seem to have been originally the quarries whence the 
stone for building the temple was taken. There was 

* I am inclined to suppose that after the dead had undergone 
the process of mummifying, and had heen wrapped in their case- 
ments, they were covered with a coating of stucco : I have a piece 
of fine white plaster which I picked in one of the tomhs, one-third 
of an inch thick, in which are the impression of a limb and frag- 
ments of cloth. 

O 2 



292 WAXDEELXGS IN NOETH AEEICA. Chap. XIX. 

formerly a spring here, celebrated for its medicinal 
virtues, but now sanded up, called 'Ain el Handa- 
lieh. 

Accompanied by the brother of the Mufti, the only 
one of the Sheikhs of the Lifayah whom I could trust, 
I went to see the town proper of Siwah. "We first 
went to the date yards (niestahh, ^A^-*-^), in which 
the dates are piled up in great heaps, the ground being 
divided by stones, which distinguish each individual's 
property. These stone places are three in number, 
and lie in the plain to the north of the town; they are 
surrounded by a wall, with a gate to each, one be- 
longing to the Gharbyin, one to the Lifayah, and the 
centre one to members of both communities. They 
said that thus left exposed to the sun and ah the dates 
will keep for a long time, neither subject to decay nor 
to the attacks of insects. 

Crossing the open space which separates the mestahh 
from the foot of the town, we passed the chapel of 
Sidi Suleiman, who is the most venerated Marabut of 
this place ; he seems, indeed, to have succeeded, in the 
estimation of the surrounding Arabs, to the old sanc- 
tity of Ammon. All disputes and lawsuits, which in 
Moslem jurisprudence are decided by the oaths of the 
parties, are adjourned to Sidi Suleiman for decision; 
and many who fear not to swear falsely by God and 



Chap. XIX. 



INTERIOR OF SIWAH. 



293 



his Prophet will speak the truth here, as the Sheikh is 
said never to have left a false oath sworn in his name 
unpunished. 

From this place, entering hy a flight of steps one of 
the fourteen doors, I was introduced into the interior 
of the town. A servant carried a lamp, which I soon 
found quite necessary, for without a light no one 
unacquainted with the locality could find his way 
through the dark lanes which run through the town. 
The principal street, some ten feet wide by seven or 
eight feet high, runs round the rock which forms the 
nucleus of this agglomeration of houses ; from this 
branch other streets, seldom more than four feet wide, 
and so low that one must bend the head to pass 
through them. There are four wells, two saltish, and 
two of sweet water; into two of them the light is 
allowed to enter, the houses being built round, not 
over them. Excepting here, neither air nor light enter 
the town from above ; it is not, therefore, wonderful 
that every year Siwah is visited by a typhoid fever, 
whose virulence is so great that during its continuance 
no stranger ventures to approach the Oasis. 

Having made the round of the place, and tasted the 
waters of its wells, I was not sorry to return to sun- 
light, and again to breathe a less stifling atmosphere. 
We now turned eastward, and crossed a space sur- 
rounded by houses and containing some booths for the 



294 WANDE KINGS IN NOETH AFRICA. Chap. XIX. 

market which is held here during the date season ; 
the space is called Sebucha (<3^^*j). We then 
entered a very pretty grove of palm-trees, dotted with 
the summer residences of the wealthier inhabitants, 
and thence in five minutes reached the small town of 
Menshich (&.mV.«,^'), built on level ground, and for 
the most part in ruins. It was then completely de- 
serted, all the inhabitants having, on the approach of 
the soldiers, removed into Siwah. 

Excepting the foundations of some of the houses 
on the Gara, the western extremity of the town, in 
which I was lodged (where a layer or two of masonry 
or cuttings in the rock may sometimes be remarked), 
I saw no traces of antiquity in any of the buildings, 
but, as of old, the houses are built with blocks of rock 
salt, sometimes almost pure, cemented together with 
mud. From the dryness of the climate this kind of 
wall is perfectly solid, and will even resist artillery, 
the ball driving in only so much of the material as 
will give it a passage. Tbe reader must not, however, 
imagine that the buildings of Siwah display the glit- 
tering appearance which the fairy-like palaces in some 
of the German salt-mines present. To the eye no- 
thing is apparent but the mud with which they are 
plastered, and they most prosaically resemble the 
rudest village structures in Egypt. 

The only excursion in the neighbourhood which I 



Chap. XIX. EUINS OF BELED EE-EOUM. 295 

could make was to Beled er-Roum, of whose ruins, 
and the treasures concealed in them, I had heard ex- 
traordinary accounts from the natives. It lies nearly 
north by north-west from Siwah, the road leading over 
a causeway, built, I believe, by a former governor, 
across the salt lake which bounds Siwah on this side. 
The water is shallow, and from the film of crystallised 
salt which covers it to a considerable distance, it has 
the appearance of being frozen. Passing through 
groves of palms and olives, we came in an hour and a 
half to a large mass of shapeless ruins, built of sand- 
stone and salt, called Dahiba. An hour further through 
hills, all of them containing cave-tombs, brought us to 
Beled er-Roum. We first came upon a collection of 
small ruins, built of unburnt bricks, in one of which 
are two well-turned vaults. In the rocks close to them 
are some well- executed tombs, and I am inclined to 
ascribe a similar use to these buildings, which may 
date from about the second century ; the people call 
them the houses of the infidels. A little further on 
are the ruins of the temple, which, with a disposition 
resembling the Egyptian, is of almost pure Doric 
architecture, without a trace of hieroglyphics, and the 
stones of which it is built are only two feet six inches 
by one foot. The cornice of the sanctuary, or furthest 
apartment, is composed of four flutings ; that of the 
exterior room is one very large curve, whose outline is 



296 "WANDE KINGS IN NOETH AFEICA. Chap. XIX. 



completely Doric. There remain now portions of only 
three rooms. The inner one, with two small windows, 
is sixteen feet five inches in "breadth by fifteen feet six 
inches long. The centre room, with the same breadth, 
is only eight feet six inches long ; and the exterior 
one, now in great part ruined, is fifteen feet eight 
inches long. Their height is eighteen feet seven 
inches. The roof of the inner compartment has fallen, 
and its masses encumber the sanctuary ; of that of the 
second chamber there still remain four immense stones, 
stretching from wall to wall, like that of Omm Beida. 
The sanctuary is entered by a large doorway with 
pilasters, and the space is narrowed by short square 
pillars, with very broad capitals, which almost touch, 
so that the passage left is only broad enough for one 
person, while above there is formed by the summit of 
the capitols, a sort of window cut off the height of the 
door. In front, and in a line with the remaining 
building, extends a long substructure, the foundation 
of the remainder of the temple, which seems to have 
three times exceeded the fragment which is preserved, 
and about thirty yards further on is an extensive 
vaulted subterranean, running at right angles to the 
line of the temple. 

All these buildings undergo continual dilapidations 
through the researches of the treasure-seekers ; and it 
is probable that, at no distant date, this temple will in 



Chap. XIX. MANY EUINS ABOUND SIWAH. 297 

this manner be entirely destroyed ; for it unfortunately 
happens that treasure, enclosed in a box of obir-wood, 
is supposed to exist somewhere within the stones which 
form the roof. I was shown a Moghraby manuscript, 
containing detailed directions where to seek for trea- 
sures, and stating of what they consisted. 

Other antiquities exist in places round Siwah, their 
distance varying from six hours to two days ; but I 
was kept in such uncertainty as to the time when we 
were to leave, and I was so unwilling to take the 
responsibility of detaining the troops, that I gave up 
my intention of visiting them. Mummies are not un- 
frequently found in subterranean repositories built in 
the sand of a Hattyeh five hours distant to the west ; 
and in these graves glass or earthenware vessels are 
sometimes discovered. There is a place called Dogha 
a day and a half to the east, never visited by 
the Siwy, of which I heard from a man who had 
reached it in tracking some lost camels. He said that 
there was there a temple like that of Omm Beida, in 
front of which were rows of warriors on horseback, cut 
in stone. These may, not impossibly, be sphinxes. 
He further told me that the earth in this Hattyeh is 
black, with a strong smell of sulphur when thrown on 
the fire. I should be inclined to suppose this may 
be a sulphate of some metal; the more so, that the 
Gibely told me a man had brought, he knew not from 

o 3 



298 



WANDEKINGS IN NOETH AFEICA. Chap. XIX. 



where, a handful of similar earth, which, when ex- 
posed to the heat of a furnace, left a button of a 
white metal in the bottom of the crucible. I think 
it is Cailland who speaks of sulphur mines in Siwah ; 
but though the hot springs and occasional earth- 
quakes are a proof of volcanic action in this neigh- 
bourhood, no one I spoke with had any knowledge of 
the existence of either yellow or white sulphur. 

At Eeled er-Eoum I spent an hour in the orchard of 
one of my friends ; and in vain attempted to put this 
time to profit by learning the distinguishing marks of 
the different kinds of date-trees. It requires a very 
practised eye to discover the different varieties when 
not in fruit; the stems and leaves are so similar 
in all, that my guide was unable to point out the 
marks by which one is known from the other. The 
Siwah dates are of four kinds : — the waddy used 
for. feeding cattle ; the s'ai'dy Lf^JL^, which, with 
water, are pressed into a cake ; the gh'azaly ^j^^ 
a long brown date ; and, lastly, the most highly 
prized, the farechy ^gJ\j3, whose fruit is short, 
nearly white, and crisp, as if candied.* 

* The taxes in Siwah are levied on the date and olive trees, at 
the rate of 2£ piastres on each tree, yielding an annual revenue of 
10,000 dollars. From this tax the waddy date-trees, whose fruit is 
used for feeding the cattle, and which amount to 90,000, are ex- 
cepted. 



Chap. XIX. PEEPAEATIONS FOE DEPAETUEE. 299 

This day there blew a violent chamsin wind, which 
raised clouds of sand, rendering it almost impos- 
sible for any one to see a few yards ahead, and 
against which spectacles were no protection. Nothing 
would have tempted me to brave it but the necessity 
of being ready to start on the following day. On 
my return, I announced to the Commandant that I 
had completed my tour of the antiquities ; and would 
detain him no longer. My eyes and skin were still 
smarting from exposure to the wind ; and I was, per- 
haps, a little annoyed when he answered that, In- 
shallah ! we should start the day after to-morrow. 
But that clay was Tuesday, a bad day for starting ; the 
next, Wednesday, was still more unlucky; therefore, 
on Thursday, we were positively to go ; and, early in 
the morning of that day, almost before dawn, came 
an officer to see if I were ready. By this time, I had 
learned a lesson in punctuality, and did not hurry my- 
self ; but by eight, my camels were being loaded, under 
the superintendence of one of the Buluk-bashis, who 
seemed now to think every five minutes of value. I 
knew that the eighty water-skins had not yet been 
filled, and looked forward to a departure late in the 
afternoon as the most that could be hoped for ; but 
when at last, being fairly turned out of my house, I 
took refuge at the castle, I found there was to be a 
fresh palaver on the subject of the prisoners. I was 



300 WANDERINGS IN NOETH AFRICA. Chap. XIX 



now thoroughly tired of the question; and, like 
Falstaff, I was somewhat ashamed of the ragged regi- 
ment who were to be carried in my suite, so I told 
Hassan Aga he might do as he pleased on his own 
responsibility ; whereupon, he took from them a 
written engagement to present themselves, one and 
all, at Cairo on that day month. I held my peace till 
all was done, and they were dismissed ; after which I 
drily said to him, " I have no hand in the matter ; 
not one of them will come." And the event proved 
that I was right. 

It was now too late in the day to think of starting ; 
and, having made up my mind to preserve my good- 
humour, at least, as far as the Egyptian frontier, I ad- 
journed with Hassan to the front of the castle, where a 
carpet was spread, and the officers, old and young, 
joined by several of the men, gave us the amusement 
of a game of the Jerid. I had never before seen this 
really graceful exercise ; but it has been so often de- 
scribed that I refrain from speaking of it. 



CHAPTEE XX. 



Leave Siwah. — Eude Sepulchres. — A Camel's last stage. — Sand 
Storm. — Find an Arab Cousin. — Corn hard to get at. — Adieu 
to the Desert. — The Desert. The Oasis. — Arrive at Cairo. 

Good Friday. — March 26th. — It was eleven o'clock 
the next day before everything was ready. The camels 
w r ere loaded and sent on, and then, with loud beating 
of the little saddle- drums, the horsemen forming a long 
line, their colours in the middle, followed by Hassan 
Aga and myself, we rode slowly out of Siwah. The 
officers cantered along the line as it advanced, first one 
and then another, in no regular order, and with no 
other apparent object than that of making a sort of 
fantasia, as the Arabs call everything which they think 
amusing or gay. A wedding festivity, a gaily-decked 
horse, or an embroidered jacket, are all equally fan- 
tasia. My servants and the slaves of the officers, 
Sheikh Yusuf and his friends, who in considerable 
numbers accompanied him, for some hours brought 
up the rear. The well-disposed part of the population 



302 



WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFEICA. Chap. XX. 



had come out to see the show, and to bid me adieu ; 
among them the Mufti and his brother, but none of 
my late prisoners appeared in the crovrd, to the great 
indignation of Hassan Aga. 

An hour out of the town the standard was furled, 
and then the line was broken, and every one went as 
his fancy led him, excepting myself, who soon found 
that I was considered either too suspicious or too 
precious a personage to be allowed to stir a step 
without Hassan Aga at my side. If I hung back, 
he did so too ; if I rode to one side, he not only 
followed me. but with him the little tin-kettle drum- 
mers, and the nucleus of his army. As for dis- 
mounting to gather a fossil, or to chip a rock, it 
was the signal for a general halt; and I was there- 
fore condemned to stick to my saddle and follow my 
leader. 

In three hours and a half we reached a Hattyeh 
called WushkyTamoushty, , ^L^lz, iC^a, where we 
halted for some little time to allow the camels to 
come up. Ponds of bitter water, palm bushes and 
minosas, dot this plain, which is infested by myriads of 
small, gray, singularly venomous nrusquitoes. Two 
and a half hours further on, Ave came to some hills 
called Gebel Melhiors, ^wSj-jjL*, of the same tertiary 
limestone as those around Siwah, and here the soldiers 
amused themselves by discharging their guns and pis- 



Chap. XX. 



LEAVE SIWAH. 



303 



tols to enjoy the repeated echoes of one of the rocks. 
It was half-past nine, when, after passing Hattyeh el 

Kuttef, L-i£i0^, we reached Omm Hoemem j*<^-&, a 

line of low sand-hills covered with trees ; these supplied 
materials for making huge bonfires, round which the 
soldiers lay themselves to sleep in parties of three and 
four. The next day we were fourteen hours on horse- 
back, riding through a country presenting nothing re- 
markable ; I give, therefore, a mere catalogue of names. 
After passing a hill, Ingah Omm Hoemem, we came 
to a table-land called Es-sutah, from which, 

on the right, rises a rock called Er-Eocheia, <X-^^i\ 9 
The view was bounded towards the east by low white 
hills, destitute of any appearance of vegetation, called, 
from their colour, El-abiadh. Here we halted for the 
night'; the soldiers were in great discomfort, as the 
place affords no means of making fires, and the night 
was extremely chilly. Skirting El-abiadh we reached in 
three hours a darker-coloured range, called El Ach- 
mar, and from this it took us three hours to arrive at 
the palm-groves and wells of brackish water, which lie 
on this side of the small oasis of El Gara, as it is 
usually called, though also known as Omm-es-sog- 
h aigh,^~*R-*J \ ^ \. 

This is a miniature Siwah, presenting the same 
abundance of water (which is here all bitter), and a 



304 



WANDERINGS IN NOETH AFEICA. Chap. XX. 



proportionate number of date trees. The town, now 
almost in ruins, resembles Agharmy in its situation on 
a table-rock, and is approached by a very steep path, 
which passes under a gateway. Everything betokens 
the poverty and misery of the inhabitants, who only 
number twelve grown men. There is a tradition, that 
the population of the place can never exceed forty ; 
and whenever, by immigration (which they do not there- 
fore encourage) or by births, this limit is passed, some 
one is sure to die. The male population seemed very 
well-disposed, coming at once on our arrival to pay 
their court to Hassan Aga and Sheikh Yusuf, and 
showing readiness to make themselves as useful as 
they could. I never met with twelve such ugly speci- 
mens of humanity collected in one place; and their 
virtues do not atone for their bad looks, as they are 
said to be drunkards and lazy, taking no other care of 
their date trees, about 21,000 in number, than draw- 
ing layby and gathering the fruit from them. They 
make no attempt at manuring them, and do not even 
trim them, so that their produce is very inferior to the 
dates of Siwah. The interior of the town is even 
more ruinous than the promise of its external appear- 
ance; a circular market-place, surrounded by fallen 
cabins, occupies its centre, and it has near the en- 
trance a well of drinkable water, 70 feet deep. 

The brother of one of the two sheikhs who govern 



Chap. XX. 



EUDE SEPULCHRES. 



305 



this important territory acted as my guide to see the 
curiosities of the place, and thinking, perhaps, that he 
had not sufficiently earned his bachshish, he insisted, 
as we came out, on showing the town gate. He closed 
the massive door, formed of palm trunks, and, after 
drawing some ponderous bolts, linked on an iron cable 
chain of the largest dimensions, to show me how 
secure it was. I could not help smiling at the precau- 
tions taken to close a place which contained nothing of 
the smallest value, which drew from him a grave 
shake of the head and the triumphant rejoinder, that a 
strong door and a big chain are good things. In the 
rock on which the town is built are four rudely- exca- 
vated sepulchres, and I saw many more in different 
parts of the small oasis, but the rudeness of their 
fashion leads me to conjecture that even in its most 
flourishing times this dependency on the Ammonium 
never reached any high degree of prosperity. Either 
this, or the lake of El Arachish, to the north-west of 
Siwah, must have been the place where Alexander left 
his escort in entering on the sacred territory of Am- 
nion. We spent a day and a half here, notwithstand- 
ing the badness of the water, from which some of the 
horses had suffered in coming to Siwah, as the Aga 
had forgotten or neglected to have bread baked for the 
soldiers before starting. Leaving El Gara, we took 
almost a due northerly direction, and made long days, 



306 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XX. 

as there is no water to be found for four days. The 
horses of my escort had the had habit of drinking 
daily, which a thorough desert horse does not require, 
and, when possible, the draught is given to them about 
midday. Immediately after drinking, their riders 
mount them and give them a short gallop, which I can 
only suppose is for the purpose of winding them. 

The first landmark we reached was G ar-el-lebna, 
the milk hill, thirteen hours off, the next six hours 
further on, Gar-ed-dih, the cock's hill. Many of the 
horses fell, as if struck with apoplexy, on the second 
day, and on this day and the two following ones we 
lost eleven. I ascribe the casualty to the water of the 
Gara, which, stopping digestion, blew them up like a 
well-inflated foot-ball, and after a few hours in this 
state, if injections, fomentations, and bleeding had no 
effect, they dropped as if shot, with all the appearance 
of a coup de sang. As ten of his horses had died 
with the same symptoms on arriving in Siwah, I sug- 
gested to Hassan Aga that as short a route might be 
found leaving the Gara to the east, which would, per- 
haps, avoid any risk there might be from a recurrence 
of illness among the horses. He made no account of 
this ; and now that one would have thought his eyes 
must be opened to the results of his stupidity, he and 
Sheikh Yusuf agreed in ascribing the misfortune to 
the Evil Eye, while Yusuf looked grave, and said no 



Chap. XX. A CAMEL'S LAST STAGE. 307 

soldiers had ever approached Siwah without being 
struck by the Eye in leaving it. Of course there was 
no veterinary with the detachment ; but what was 
stranger, not one of the party seemed to have an idea 
of what to do ; they had no physic, nor even a fleam. 
The horses which recovered, as well as, I acknowledge, 
some of those which died, were doctored by my ser- 
vant and myself, their owners seeming to have no 
resource but to sit down and thank God that the Eye 
was on the horses, not on the men. 

We had made thirteen hours this day, but on the 
next, the Commandant being anxious to arrive at 
water, as the skins were rapidly decreasing under the 
charge of the Arabs, the camels made seventeen hours' 
journey, and the next day, in three hours, we reached 
a well called Caldeh ; it, however, contained so small 
a supply that we literally drank it dry. From Omm 
Es-soghair to this well the distance is forty-six hours. 
Though every day their loads, principally water and 
corn, were growing lighter, a great many of the camels 
were so exhausted that they dropped down, unable to 
proceed. When no application of the stick would 
induce the poor beasts to rise, their loads were distri- 
buted to others, and they sometimes were able to con- 
tinue the journey. But if they had been driven too 
far before falling this was useless, and after a few 
steps they would again lie down, when the camel 



308 



WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XX. 



drivers would at once despatch them, and then strip- 
ping off the hide, they cut all the flesh from the hones 
to make a feast in the evening, so that within half an 
hour a pool of blood and a skeleton were all that 
remained of their long-suffering companion. I was 
unlucky enough to come up just as one large white 
camel fell. It lay motionless, while its brutal master, 
with heavy blows, endeavoured to force it to rise. In 
vain. The escort stopped to look on, and I was so 
fascinated with the expression of the dying beast's 
head, that, though anxious to turn away, I was an 
involuntary witness of its death. As all efforts to 
make it rise were unavailing, a man threw it over on 
its side and slowly cut through its long neck, from 
which an immense stream of blood flowed, while he pro- 
nounced the words, " In the name of God the Merciful, 
the Compassionate." The camel made no resistance ; 
but, turning its head towards its butcher, uttered two 
or three loud, heart-rending moans, which sounded in 
my ears for the remainder of the day. I have seldom 
witnessed a more pitiable sight. 

Five hours beyond Caldeh is another and very re- 
markable well, being a subterranean chamber hollowed 
in the rock, 72 feet square, in the floor of which are 
nine wells, one in each corner, in the centre of each 
side, and in the middle. Two are now sanded up, but 
the others afford an abundance of water. The cham- 



Chap. XX. 



SAND STORM. 



309 



ber is eight feet high, and presents every appearance 
of great antiquity ; hut there are no ruins apparent in 
the vicinity, nor any town named in the ancient geo- 
graphies which could have occupied this place; per- 
haps, in its origin, it served, as at the present day, as a 
reservoir for the caravans from the south and west. 
We encamped here for the night, as a strong wind, 
which had been blowing all day, had increased to such 
violence that it was impossible to proceed. The air 
was filled with sand of a dark orange colour, while the 
sun, an hour and a half before setting, was of a pale 
blue, and could be gazed at with the naked eye. Had 
we been in July instead of April, this wind, which 
blew from the south-west, might have been attended 
with serious consequences. In the night a great deal 
of rain fell, which moderated its violence, and the next 
morning it had entirely ceased. We were now leaving 
the region of sand, the ground being dotted with a 
spare vegetation, which, in three hours from Bu Bat- 
tah, gave the country a general green tone, till on 
approaching the sea this was succeeded by a strong, 
healthy growth of herbs and grass, affording excellent 
pasturage. In eight hours we reached the edge of the 
great platform we had been traversing, and by a steep 
descent, of not more than 120 feet in perpendicular, 
we reached the level of the sea, encamping, at the end 
of the ninth hour, in a meadow of rank grass, sepa- 



310 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XX. 

rated from the sea by a ridge of sand. A point to the 
west forms here a small hay, and Baretoun, the an- 
cient Panetorium, lies a little beyond this. The name 
given to the place we encamped in is Berbetat-el- 
mudar. We here passed the following day to rest the 
horses, and to endeavour to obtain some supplies from 
the Arabs who are usually stationed here, but who 
now, at the instigation, I believe, of one of the sheikhs 
who were with us, had run away. They were probably 
within a few miles of our encampment, but so well 
concealed that every effort to discover their retreat was 
useless ; and thus the visions of sheep and milk in which 
we had all been indulging were rendered illusory. 
From this place our course turned to the east, riding 
over a plain raised above the sea, of which we fre- 
quently caught a sight. Four hours eastwards is a 
place called, by the Arabs, Euhah ; and half an hour 
further on we came to the ruins of a small town whose 
walls are still to be traced. Nothing that remains 
indicates the name by which it may have been de- 
signated by Ptolemy, whose nomenclature is here, 
though so near Alexandria, singularly defective. In six 
hours more we encamped in a valley, surrounded by 
low hills, called Bu Jerabeh, containing several wells of 
bitter water, one only of which was drinkable. Here 
we found Sonagrah Arabs, whom their sheikh, Haj 
Chalil, prevented from running away, so that we were 



Chap. XX. FIND AN AKAB COUSIN. 311 

well supplied with fresh butter, sour and sweet milk, 
and sheep, paying, of course, for all that we took. 

I ought already to have presented the Haj Chalil to 
my reader, as he was the best of the Aoulad Ali whom 
I saw, and I exchanged with him on the road many a 
friendly joke. A day or two after my escort's arrival 
in Siwah, a tall, stout man, of some fifty years, entered 
my room, with a certain mysteriously solemn and con- 
sequential air. When he had taken his place, he said 
to me, in a low voice, that he had something very 
secret to communicate to me. Of course, after learn- 
ing that he was Sheikh Haj Chalil, I ordered that no 
one should be admitted during the conference. He 
told me, as if it had been a matter of life and death, 
that he was my cousin, there being only seven grand- 
fathers between him and me. The relationship, thus 
precisely defined, tickled my fancy, and though I 
supposed he must refer to descent from Spanish 
Moors, I begged he would enlighten me on his pedi- 
gree. It seems that his ancestor, whom he called 
Songor (hence the name of the Sonagra Arabs), was 
a Frank boy, who had been washed on shore from a 
wreck near Sallum. He was seized by the Bedawin, 
made the property of the Sheikh of Aoulad Hharsuf, 
and in the end married his daughter, and became the 
patriarch of a new tribe. The Arabs have no idea 
that one Christian is not cousin to another ; hence the 



312 WANDEEINGS IN NOKTH AEEICA. Chap. XX. 

claim of relationship, which I acknowledged ever after- 
wards, calling him son of my uncle. It was not, how- 
ever, only to have the pleasure of claiming relationship 
with me that he came so mysteriously ; it was to "beg 
that, in consideration of this, I would speak well of 
him to the Viceroy, so as to ohtain his nomination as 
Great Sheikh of the Aoulad Ali, under which name 
are comprised the three tribes, Hharsuf, Sonagra, and 
Sinnma. I could not promise to interfere in a matter 
in which I could have no right to interest myself, and 
no power to he useful if I had done so ; but when the 
occasion afterwards presented itself, in the course of 
conversation, I was not forgetful of my uncle's son, 
though my good offices were unavailing, as his High- 
ness had already decided on naming a sheikh from 
the Aoulad Hharsuf. And a lucky escape it was, too, 
for Haj Chalil, as the possessor of the coveted honour, 
within three months followed his predecessor on the 
road to Fazoughla — a sort of penal hell upon earth — 
where, if he have good luck, he will arrive, instead of 
being murdered, as the other is said to have been, at 
Girgeh; for, I suppose, one must call murder the 
condemning a man to one punishment, and secretly 
inflicting upon him a heavier one — the loss of his 
head. 

From Bu Jerabah we travelled over a slightly- 
undulating country, covered with a short, wiry grass, 



Chap. XX. 



CORN HARD TO GET AT. 



313 



called by the Arabs wild barley, which affords excel- 
lent pasture for horses, till we reached Turbiat, in 
five hours and a half. This was again a short day, 
as the camels and horses were too tired to proceed. 
Here, after much scolding and threatening of the 
Courbadj, we obtained a small supply of corn for the 
horses — a necessity which was not agreeable to Hassan 
Aga, as he had to pay here for what he required, while 
the corn he took in Siwah was levied as a contribution 
on the town. The Siwy persuaded the Arabs, who 
were glad to save their camels the extra weight, to 
assure the Commandant that corn was to be had in 
any quantity after the eighth day ; but these same 
Arabs now took care to send on before us during the 
night, to warn all their fellows out of our way. As 
everything taken from the Arabs was fairly paid for, it 
seemed mere spite on the part of the sheikhs who 
were with us thus to increase the inconveniences of 
the journey, and I acknowledge I was not sorry to 
hear that one of the most troublesome among them 
had received from the Commandant's own hands a 
rather severe drubbing. Twenty-five hours were em- 
ployed the two following days in reaching the wells 
called El Hammam. We had now left the coast line, 
but the next day, an hour and a half after starting, 
having the Arabs' Tower, or Abou Sir, the old Tapo- 

r 



314 WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XX. 

siris, in sight, we passed through extensive ruins, 
marking, perhaps, the site of Antiphrse, so famous for 
its wine — it was so bad. At a considerable distance 
to the right rise the flat hills of Hoshm el'Aish, which 
may be said to bound the district of Mariout. We 
only made nine hours this day, stopping at Caraya, 
where are five wells of ancient construction, the largest 
built with very solid masonry, having an orifice of 
twelve feet by three. The old Lake Mareotis is now 
an extensive plain, covered with dark shrubs, and dotted 
with low, yellow mounds. 

Two thousand female dromedaries belonging to the 
Viceroy were stationed here for the pasturage, the best 
camel-browsing ground in Egypt. I wondered to what 
purpose these were applied, and admired his High- 
ness's tender solicitude for his stud of Arab horses, 
when I learned that, immediately after the mares foal, 
the dromedaries are sent up the country to supply 
them with milk. His horses are decidedly the best 
lodged, best fed, and best cared for of the present 
Pacha's subjects. After passing two Marabut chapels, 
Abu Hadidj and Sheikh Masa'udi, which lay to the 
right, we came to the first village in Egypt, Gheita, 
and stopped, eight hcurs from. Caraya, at El Hamra. 
The next day was the last of our weary journey : in 
two hours we came to El Hhosh (Hhosh Ebro Tsa), 



Chap. XX. 



ADIEU TO THE DESERT. 



315 



which is celebrated for its breed of falcons ; and in six 
hours more we pitched our tents outside the flourishing 
town of Damanhour. 

Here ended my desert journey, and it was not with- 
out feelings of pleasure that I found myself once more 
within the circuit of Eastern civilisation. But it must 
not be supposed that I left the desert without some 
feelings of regret. A prolonged sojourn in those vast 
plains of sand, — condemned to a perpetual sterility — a 
voyage over those waterless seas, is less devoid of in- 
terest than at first sight one might be led to expect. 
They offer, indeed, little variety, and they promise 
less ; but this very monotony renders the traveller 
more attentive to the varied aspects which Nature 
even here presents, and awakens his attention to many 
an object which in more-favoured climes he would 
pass unobserved. The only variety of general feature 
is the passing from loose sand to more compact gravel, 
or from boundless plains, which the wearied eye ranges 
over without meeting an object on which to fix the 
gaze, to equally desert hills, whose sandy solitudes are 
undisturbed even by an echo. Sometimes, more awful 
still, one comes upon vast tracts covered with small, 
dark, loose fragments, giving a chocolate colour to the 
ground, which there seems to absorb the rays of the 
mid- day sun, but without reposing the eye from its 
glare. The camel here leaves no traces of his path, 

p 3 



316 WANDEKINGS IN NOETH AFRICA. Chap. XX. 

so that the solitary traveller must strain his sight to 
keep in view the distant caravan ; the dry tramp of his 
horse alone disturbs the mournful silence ; the sun is 
darting on him Ins most burning rays ; and, from the 
colour of the ground, he seems to have lost even the 
companionship of his own shadow. 

But this very silence, this monotonous absence of 
animation, are of themselves impressive, and soon ac- 
quire a peculiar charm for the imagination. The earth 
seems boundless as the ocean, not less cheerlessly 
uniform than a sea becalmed, and not less dangerously 
wild than it when roused by the strife of elements. 
The sky is pale in the glare of mid-day, but glows 
with the brightest tints as evening closes in ; after 
sunset, it is again illuminated by the zodiacal light, 
which fades to disclose a surface of the deepest purple, 
spangled with thousands of stars, whose twinkling 
brightness surpasses anything that our northern cli- 
mates can show. The desert, where no howling of wild 
beasts alarms the ear, no watch-fire proclaims the 
vicinity of fellow-meri, affects one less with a sense of 
solitude than of vastness, and, like the sea, awakens 
feelings rather of the moral greatness with which man 
is endowed, than of the physical weakness which is 
his lot. Man, alone, can traverse the broad desert ; I 
have been days without meeting the trace of a quad- 
ruped, or seeing a bird in the air ; the wind- worn rocks 



Chap. XX. THE DESEET. THE OASIS. 317 

bear no nourishment for the former, the restless sand- 
waves afford no prey to the latter. 

When, in this sea of sand, one approaches the rare 
islands with which it is dotted, the eye is first attracted 
to the tracks worn by the jackals and gazelles, which, 
making their abodes during the day among the shrub- 
less rocks, often twenty or thirty miles from water, 
at night go to drink and feed in the oasis. Then the 
sand is dotted with clumps of the zumaran, and other 
thick-leaved plants, whose roots, stretching along the 
surface, draw sufficient moisture for their existence 
from the air; round these may be marked the tiny 
footprints left by the nightly gambols of the gerboa. 
A clump of palm-trees, or a few mimosas, are at last 
seen on the horizon, and welcomed with joy by the 
thirsty caravan ; the camels now increase their pace, 
the Arab's step becomes more elastic, though it will 
be hours before the wished-for spring is reached. 
Kound this are the blackened fire-places of former 
travellers, the deep claw-marks of the vultures, the 
tracks of the fox, the jackal, and the gazelle, the trail 
of the land tortoise, even the black, rough-backed 
beetle, patiently rolling its load towards its hole, each 
and all are welcome, as telling of the living world from 
which the traveller has been separated. 

Desert travel has its pleasures as well as its tribu- 



318 



WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XX. 



lations. Of the former I have said but little in the 
preceding narrative, for hours of contemplation find 
no place in a note-hook ; of the latter I have said, 
perhaps, more than enough, for annoyances which 
in the retrospect are insignificant, seem proportionally 
great while one is suffering from them. 

The time of actual travelling from Siwah to Daman- 
hour was 155 hours, a fair journey of thirteen days, 
which is the time the caravans usually employ, while 
Alexandria is a day nearer. There is another road 
which is easier for the camels, following the coast line 
(in going to Siwah) from Berbetat el Mudar to Kasr 
Adjubah, one day and a half. Thence to Jarjub, the 
same distance ; to Esh-Shamar, half a day ; to Sallum, 
three days. Thence, turning northwards, to Bir el 
Hhamza, two days, and thence to Siwah, three days. 
The direct road to Siwah from Cairo is by Tervaneh 
and the Natron lakes, but by this route of eleven days 
there are four without water. From Siwah to Dema is 
a journey of fifteen days, and to Benghazi twenty 
days. 

I will not detain the reader by an account of my 
adventures after reaching Damanhour. How the Turk- 
ish colonel of the Bashbuzuks came to meet me, and 
then was inclined to treat me somawhat cavalierly; 
how I recalled him to his senses, and how it ended 



Chap. XX. ARRIVE AT CAIEO. 319 

in our kissing and being friends; and my then 
spending a night with him at Kachmania, from which 
place I embarked for Cairo. 

This narration of a nine months' journey, in coun- 
tries little known, however uninterestingly told, is at 
least faithful. I believe, indeed, that the traveller 
who simply records what he sees with his eyes and 
hears with his ears, and indulges in none of the 
pleasures of the imagination, rarely meets with those 
stirring scenes which, beheld by the fancy and treated 
with the pen of an artist, so frequently charm the 
reader. My tale is true, and it relates to what may 
still be called unknown countries ; and this is my 
reason for offering it to the public. 

I am bound to express my obligations for the ready 
aid afforded me by Her Majesty's Consul in Cairo, 
during the absence or leave of the accomplished Con- 
sul- General, whose departure, a few weeks after my 
arrival, was a subject of regret both to Turk and 
Frank. It would be unjust also to omit stating, that 
the Viceroy, within twenty-four hours of the arrival of 
my letter, despatched orders for the march of 150 
soldiers to my relief ; and, after my presentation to 
him in Cairo, ordered another party of 200 to be sent 
to disarm the town, and to bring forty-nine of the 
Siwy to Cairo to answer for their conduct. 

Sheikh Yusuf is reinstated, in more than his 



320 



WANDERINGS IN NORTH AFRICA. Chap. XX. 



former authority, with a garrison of twenty soldiers 
under his orders ; so I flatter myself that my pro- 
phecy to the Shiekhs of Siwah, that I should be the 
last European they would ill-treat, is now fulfilled. I 
can now have the satisfaction of feeling, that my 
successors in the exploration of the antiquities of 
that country will meet with no obstacles to their re- 
searches. 



FINIS. 



Woodlail and Kinder, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London. 




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